The College conducts an annual chemical inventory reconciliation to ensure our inventory of all chemicals is as up-to-date as possible. The work is performed by a student, typically around spring graduation, who works full-time for about two weeks to manually scan the bar codes of every inventoried chemical with a portable scanner. For this reason, it is imperative that every inventoried container be located. Faculty and staff should assist the student worker in locating all containers.
After the initial scanning phase, a list of “missing” chemicals is generated. Faculty will be contacted for their assistance in locating missing chemicals, and should respond appropriately to each item on the list:
- If a container's location is known, the student worker should be informed so the correct location can be updated in the system.
- If a container's location is unknown, nothing should be done. It should remain "missing" until such time as it is located, or until it's remained on the list for three years (see below).
- If a container is known to have been emptied, the record may be safely removed from the system. This will also be done by the student worker.
Missing containers shall remain active in the inventory for three years. If after three years the chemical has not been located, it shall be assumed that the container no longer exists and shall be removed from the system.