UGM commits in maintaining safety and health of its academicians and related parties, as well as maintaining and preserving environment in UGM area. This commitment has been upheld by UGM since a long time ago. In order to actualize the commitment, UGM has implemented several policies, such as emphasizing occupational safety and health, and environment preservation as important aspects of university policies.
“Obedience is required for the implementation of regulation which regulates occupational safety and health, and environment preservation,” said UGM Rector, Prof. Ir. Dwikorita Karnawati, M.Sc., Ph.D. on Tuesday (14/3).
Furthermore, she said UGM has implemented management systems for occupational safety and health, and environment preservation in campus. Moreover, UGM also had held workshop and training continuously to ensure UGM communities understand and implement the regulations.
“It needs responsibility and support from all of UGM communities,” she added.
In line with that, Head of Occupational Security, Safety and Health, and Environment Center (PK4L), Dr. Noorhadi Rahardjo explained Safety, Health, and Environment (SHE) not only regulates emergency mechanism in disaster situation, but also maintains safety and health of lecturers, non-teaching staff, students, and other related parties, as well as maintains and preserve the environment in UGM area.
“We hope every individual can implement the SHE in their daily activities to keep themselves safe and it should be obeyed by every individual,” said Noorhadi.
On campus, according to Noorhadi, SHE is actualized by UGM Occupational Safety, Health, and Environment Policies which are arranged through consultation process with UGM academicians and started by identification process of potential risk at university and several work units levels.
Then, it is supported by the development of related facilities and infrastructures, such as establishing hydrant network, increasing patrol vehicles, organizing parking system, creating waste management system, etc. However, according to Noorhadi, these facilities are not beneficial without academicians’ awareness.
Head of Occupational Safety and Health Division, Aminudin Arhab, S.IP., said UGM has an open access to society which becomes a challenge. To overcome it, UGM restricts access for society to enter campus at certain times.
“The area of UGM is approximately 300 hectares which makes it difficult to secure campus security. Therefore, we engage local people to participate in maintaining campus security,” said Aminudin.
Meanwhile, in order to maintain environment quality, environmental impact analysis is done routinely. Moreover, the qualities of air, water, as well as waste management are tested periodically.
It is also related to the efforts of increasing health quality for UGM academicians. One of regulations implemented by UGM is controlling the quality of foods which are sold in campus, including the sanitation and cleanness aspects.
Related to the vegetation planting in campus, Aminudin said UGM has particular team whose jobs is organizing the vegetation based on esthetic aspect, safety, and its accordance to the environment. For safety factor, according to Aminudin, becomes one of important factors to organize the vegetation, particularly due to the extreme weather such as windy rain and lightning which can break the trees. Therefore, this becomes a consideration whether to chop big trees.
“The chopping of big trees aims to keep UGM communities safe. The trees that have been chopped will be changed with new plants,” he added.