Personnel

The stockroom manager, Tony Brown, serves as the primary contact for stockroom related business. In the absence of the stockroom manager, or in the event that immediate attention is required and the stockroom manager cannot be reached, the following personnel are usually available: the lab manager/safety representative, Cynthia Kuhlken, and the department secretary, Lisa Stowe. During the academic year, the stockroom has a staff of quality student employees that are happy to help you in any way they can.

General contact information for the stockroom can be found at the bottom left side of this page.

Hours of Operation

The stockroom is open from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Friday. However, there are random times during the week when there is nobody available to meet you at the window or to answer the phone. For this reason, it is recommended that you call and talk to the stockroom manager or leave a message before making an unnecessary trip to the stockroom. Messages are checked frequently and calls are returned promptly.

Service to Other CWU Departments

The personnel of the stockroom are glad to assist other CWU departments with issues concerning the use of chemicals and scientific equipment on campus. Individual research projects, presentations or demonstrations are common practices on campus which sometimes require the need for chemicals and/or scientific equipment. In these cases, it would not be practical or economical for an individual or a department to make purchases for chemicals and equipment that would only be used once. Under these circumstances, the stockroom is happy to provide assistance in ways such as transferring small amounts of chemicals and/or lending out simple scientific equipment to other CWU departments. The stockroom manager is also more than happy to assist individuals in obtaining information about chemicals or laboratory procedures. If there are questions concerning chemistry related issues the personnel in the stockroom and the Chemistry Department as a whole will do everything they can to answer these questions.

There are, unfortunately, limitations to the services the stockroom can provide. The chemistry stockroom is supported solely by the chemistry department and therefore must limit its services primarily to supporting the department. Therefore, fees must be charged for any services and materials provided by the stockroom (see procedures and policies). In situations where chemicals or equipment are repeatedly used in curricula, or similar demonstrations and projects are periodically performed, the stockroom does not feel obligated to provide chemicals and/or equipment to support these practices on a repeated basis. Also, there are cases in which chemicals and/or equipment need to be purchased by other CWU departments to support curricula needs or academic projects. Our staff is happy to assist in meeting these needs by providing information on how to purchase these items, but the stockroom will not purchase these items and then sell them to other departments.

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Stockroom Policies and Procedures

• A $15.00 minimum fee is charged for services that are provided for other CWU departments.
• If the services are time consuming (more than 1 hour) then a $15.00 per hour fee is charged.
• Prices for chemicals and supplies are accessed from catalogs that were used to purchase these items.
• Any financial transaction between the Chemistry department and other CWU departments must be approved by the acting chair from the department making the request.
• For billing purposes, an invoice with a faculty signature and a valid budget number must be completed prior to any transfer of chemicals or supplies from the chemistry department to other CWU departments.
• Any student requests for chemicals and supplies must be accompanied by written consent or personal e-mail from a faculty member that confirms the request.
• A one week advance notice must be given to the stockroom manager to prepare chemicals and supplies for transfer.
• The faculty member that signs for chemicals that are transferred to other CWU departments assumes responsibility for the safe handing and proper disposal of such chemicals.
• The CWU chemistry stockroom does not buy, sell, trade, accept or give any chemicals or supplies to any institutions or individuals that do not have direct official business with CWU.

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Employment

Working in the chemistry stockroom has several benefits for students here at Central. If you're a science major (especially a chemistry major!), working in the stockroom is a great way to learn more about chemicals and the supplies and equipment that are necessary to perform scientific experiments. By storing the chemicals according to hazard categories, employees end up learning about the properties of many chemicals whether they realize it or not! Because of the discipline specific nature of the job, it is also considered by student employment to be a job that is covered under the work study program. Qualified applicants may receive more money per hour because it is teaching you about chemistry and science as you work. Last but not least, the most important reason for working in the stockroom is obviously because of the big bucks you'll make working here! (ha ha)

The stockroom usually employs three to five students for a total of 20-25 hrs per week. So, as it turns out, each employee gets anywhere from 4 to 14 hrs a week depending on the schedules for a particular quarter. If you would like to know more about working as a stockroom assistant, check out the job posted on the student employment web site. In related work, the chemistry department is always looking for good students to be teaching assistants. If you've been through the chem 181 series and did pretty well, check out the chemistry teaching assistant position as well.

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