Report 2017-119 Recommendation 3 Responses

Report 2017-119: California State University: It Has Not Provided Adequate Oversight of the Safety of Employees and Students Who Work With Hazardous Materials (Release Date: April 2018)

Recommendation #3 To: University, California State

To ensure that it provides effective oversight of health and safety issues on the campuses, the Chancellor's Office should, by November 2018, develop a uniform health and safety reporting template and require the campuses to use it to annually report information related to campus health and safety, including data regarding employee and student training and any other areas the Chancellor's Office considers critical to its oversight of health and safety compliance. In developing this reporting template, the Chancellor's Office should consider the information from its own health and safety-related audits as well as the findings and recommendations of this audit.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2019

As confirmed by the State Auditor, the Chancellor's Office provided evidence demonstrating that it developed a uniform health and safety reporting template and required the campuses to use it to annually report information related to campus health and safety, including data regarding employee and student training and other areas the Chancellor's Office considers critical to its oversight of health and safety compliance. In October 2019, the Chancellor's Office updated the reporting template to include a comparison of the number of students and employees required to receive required training to address whether the training is adequate.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

1-Year Agency Response

The Chancellor's Office has completed a uniform health and safety reporting template and distributed it to campus environmental health and safety directors. Campuses can use either the template or their own report format, as long as the reports include the required data, though we encourage campuses to use the standardized reporting template.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Partially Implemented

The Chancellor's Office provided evidence demonstrating that it developed a uniform health and safety reporting template and required the campuses to use it to annually report information related to campus health and safety, including data regarding employee and student training and other areas the Chancellor's Office considers critical to its oversight of health and safety compliance. It also provided evidence demonstrating that it considered information from its own health and safety-related audits as well as findings and recommendations of this audit.

However, although the new reporting template includes data regarding employee and student training, it does not address whether the training is adequate. Specifically, it only identifies the number of students and employees trained and does not include a comparison of the number of students and employees required to receive required training.

6-Month Agency Response

The Chancellor's Office is in the process of finalizing a uniform health and safety reporting template for the campuses to use to report information on health and safety, including data regarding employee and student training and other areas we consider critical to oversight of health and safety compliance. We expect the template to be complete in November 2018. In addition, we have gone a step further by updating existing policy to provide a framework for administrative environmental health and safety processes, assessment, and reporting.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

In May 2018, we compiled a list of all recommendations from past audits by the division of Audit and Advisory Services. Using this information, as well as the findings and recommendations from this audit, the Chancellor's Office is in the process of developing a uniform health and safety reporting template for the campuses to use to report information on health and safety, including data regarding employee and student training and other areas we consider critical to oversight of health and safety compliance.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2017-119

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.