The petitioners signed herein, spanning decades of students and alumni, humbly request that in order to maintain Segal Prototyping and Fabrication Lab (“The Shop”) as a safe environment for generations of students to come, these policies be implemented, enforced, and supported by Northwestern University and McCormick School of Engineering:

1. Immediately investigate the behavior that the shop professionals are accused of, and review their related documentation of student safety issues that are routinely ignored and go unpunished and unenforced, and investigate why there is no mechanism to hold students accountable in a similar fashion to other lab environments at Northwestern.
   
   
2. Enable a safe student environment in The Shop by instituting accountability measures against dangerous shop users, as follows:
   • Empower Shop Professionals and Student Shop Workers to write-up, record, and hold accountable those who break safety rules or ethics.
   • Empower Shop Professionals and Student Shop Workers to eject from The Shop those who willfully break safety rules and/or safety related instructions.
   • Empower Shop Professionals and Student Shop Workers to ban those who repeatedly put themselves and others in danger of bodily harm while working in The Shop.
   • Empower the Shop Professionals to plan and execute a mandatory minimum 40hr Fabrication Course (in line with the length of once a week chemistry labs) that must be completed for independent use of the basic shop equipment, to replace the incredibly inadequate 2hr DTC introduction session.
3. Implement a constructive feedback system for the shop professionals, such as:
   • CTECs for the shop professionals as part of the aforementioned training course.
   • CTECs for the shop professionals as part of DTC.
   • An anonymous suggestion system to provide continuous, actionable feedback throughout the quarter regarding the shop and its staff.

We are a group of students, alumni, vehicle team members, and former student shop workers of the Segal Prototyping and Fabrication Lab, spanning over a decade into the recent past. It has come to our attention that the state of the shop, and the fate of its future existence, has finally come to a head as we have sadly predicted would happen one day.

“The Shop,” as many of us lovingly call it, was an integral part of our experience as students at Northwestern. Here, we found a common space to fuse our budding fascination with engineering and design with the means and the instruction of how to bring our ideas to life. Foremost, we had mentors such as Scott Simpson to teach us how to creatively, effectively, and most importantly safely express our ideas through meaningful prototyping work. We had access to an incredible array of real, industrial level equipment, and Scott’s decades of experience as a tool maker were only rivaled by his passion for teaching students the skills of his trade (and occasionally his passion for cycling). Scott has only ever required two things if you wanted to glean some of his wisdom - a willingness to put in the time to learn, and a respect for the power and potential danger of the machines we were learning to work on. A lack of the first could be excused by student expectations and was often effectively instilled over time; but the latter requirement, if not met, immediately demonstrated a lack of care for safety of ones self and others, and there has never been any tolerance for such a disregard of safety by any shop worker.

Sadly, as years have gone by, the level of students’ respect for the machinery has noticeably gone down. The general attitude has rapidly progressed from a healthy amount of awe and fear, to a sense of entitlement to play around as one wishes on the mills, lathes, and other equipment. This has quickly translated to a disrespect of those whose job it is to ensure safety within The Shop. Students used to better understand that, if misused, these machines could seriously maim or even kill the user or an innocent person around them. Now a quick viewing of a YouTube tutorial on how to use a machine makes users erroneously confident enough to think they know better than seasoned professionals. Most of us who did work in The Shop saw questionable practices by students who were convinced they knew what they were doing, but never had the presence of mind to consult a trained student worker or shop professional for advice. When confronted, they often took the opportunity to get offended for being questioned, rather than learn. It is only because of the incredible vigilance of the shop professionals that many potentially dangerous situations were stopped before they ever started, and Scott is the most experienced member in this regard. His genuine love of the job and decades of mentoring students have made him not only immensely effective but genuinely caring about everyone in The Shop.

Perhaps most importantly, the level of accountability for misuse of The Shop has dropped drastically. If a student fails to wear appropriate attire, fails to wear safety glasses, or even egregiously and purposely ignores directions relating to safety and shop policy, the staff is at more risk of reprimand and consequences than the rule breakers themselves. This is in complete contrast to any other university lab environment, such as in a chemistry lab, where even accidental lack of PPE can result in expulsion from the lab and a 0 grade for the day. In any other lab, the staff responsible for running the facility are benevolent dictators, and their word is law. The shop professionals, on the other hand, are treated as customer service representatives by students and management alike. The current students demanding (not even asking) that The Shop be made a Safe Space is comically at odds with actual safety from bodily harm and demonstrates immaturity and a lack of responsibility and imagination on the students’ part.

The most hurtful part of recent events, however, is the vilification of Scott Simpson directly. We alumni have stories of Scott defending students from real tyrants in The Shop, even one who screamed at and threw metal objects at students. Seeing claims of Scott “yelling” at students is laughable for anyone who has spent meaningful time in The Shop, and we can only imagine this claim stems from an ignorant attitude to Scott’s relatively new disability of hearing loss combined with poorly performing hearing aids. We have stories of Scott’s mentorship, without which many of us would have struggled to find employment after college, and with which we were able to land dream jobs at companies like Ford, SpaceX, and Boeing. We have stories of Scott’s heartfelt care, supporting us and talking to us as a friend when we suffered anxiety from the grueling pace of classes at Northwestern, when bad break ups were had, when we needed career advice, when depression struck us at its worst, or when we simply needed a break from it all. We also have stories of Scott calling out us and our friends for doing boneheaded things in The Shop, and us learning from it. We come from backgrounds of all races, socioeconomic backgrounds, genders, you name it. The worst thing that could happen to The Shop would be to lose its longest serving mentor, whereas empowering Scott and the other shop professionals with the aforementioned policies would propel the Segal Prototyping and Fabrication Lab to being the standard every other university machine shop should strive to achieve in terms of educational opportunity and safety record.

We thank you for reading our heartfelt requests and stories, and hope that they show the immense yet underappreciated value The Shop and its people have to students and alumni alike. Our goal is to make sure that The Shop is able to continue existing and produce even more industry ready graduates, and your support is key in making this happen.

Please share your anecdotes here: Save the Shop Google Form