Friday Focus: Proactive safety

Oct. 8, 2021

— by Julie Queen, vice chancellor for administrative services

Welcome to this year’s first snowfall! While we usually expect the first flakes in October, it is an early snowfall in Fairbanks this year and is already showing signs of melt. Whether it sticks or not remains to be seen. I love the winter and generally can’t wait to get beyond the “will it, won’t it” game of snow and rain that makes our roads very slippery until the colder weather settles in. 

UAF winter weather advisories will be posted to the UAF On Alert webpage, and announcements are often also made in Cornerstone. Please be sure to consult our winter safety tips produced by the UAF Department of Environmental Health, Safety and Risk Management. It includes how to build an emergency road kit, local road conditions resources, winter vs. all-season tire comparisons, tips for how to walk on ice (spoiler alert: think penguin), and information on how to receive free ice cleats in Fairbanks and at UAF community campuses or learning center locations across the state.  

Some may ask, “Why do we need to know this? We live in Alaska. We know it snows here!” That may be the case, but slips, trips and falls are the number one most-reported incident at UAF. Oftentimes, small actions, if taken in advance, can prevent accidents from occuring and keep our community safe. 

If you ever need to report a slip, trip or fall, please do so via the EHSRM website (Accident/Injury Reporting), or call UAF Facilities Services at 907-474-7000 (24 hours a day, 365 days a year). It is helpful to report even if no serious injury occurs so that Facilities can track the location and respond to improve traction control or remove snow and ice throughout the winter. Facilities crews are a 24-hour operation and often start removing snow at 9 p.m. (based on weather conditions), working through the night to make spaces more accessible during the day. Building entrances, major walkways, ADA ramps and ADA parking are cleared daily. At the Troth Yeddha’ Campus in Fairbanks alone, this includes nearly 11 miles of walkways, seven miles of roads, almost 2 million square feet of parking lots and 20 miles of ski trails (groomed once there is enough snow to do so). Please be patient and kind as Facilities crews keep up with the snow load this winter — they always do such a wonderful job and appreciate your feedback. 

October is not only a month where snow is upon us, it is also Cybersecurity Awareness Month. UA has created a security awareness program. This year’s theme is “Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart.” The Office of Information Technology will be hosting a series of Zoom presentations, online scavenger hunts and games that help make practicing good cybersecurity habits more fun. Please check out the UA Security Matters webpage for details. 

Phishing continues to be one of the most common (and damaging) methods of cyber attacks facing the UA community. Be mindful of your email, including where it came from, if you were expecting it, and if it was engineered with pressure for you to act. If you discover a suspected phishing attempt, the best and quickest way to alert Google is for you to report the email as phishing within your inbox by doing the following:

• From your Gmail account, open the suspected phishing email.
• Next to the Reply button, click the More button.
• Click Report Phishing.

OIT is also offering webinars each week in October including topics like multifactor authentication, social engineering, phishing and data security (optional training through MyUA). Registration information and recordings of past webinars are available here. With a few proactive tips, I hope October is a month of safety and cybersecurity (not just snow)!

Friday Focus is a column written by a different member of UAF’s leadership team every week.