Security officers make their case to students

by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

tudents moving back into residence halls early this week and their accompanying parents were greeted by warnings regarding the future of student safety on campus. In response to the elimination of their department during budget cuts, non-police security officers passed out and posted flyers that forecasted a decrease in student safety should the officers be laid off as scheduled.

     More than 5,000 bright-yellow pages, marked "Safety Alert," were distributed by the group, according to David J. Kellogg, institutional security officer II.

     Kellogg said students and parents expressed surprise that he and 18 security colleagues are being laid off. Local newspapers reported students and parents are concerned.

     The layoffs are designed to save the University more than $550,000 annually, according to Javier Cevallos, vice chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life, and are part of a larger budget-reducing plan that involves 95 layoffs to date.

     The laid-off security force provides transportation escorts for students, patrols buildings and parking lots at night, responds to campus emergencies, registers bicycles, watches prisoners arrested on campus while they are held in the Amherst jail, and provides crowd and traffic control.

     Kellogg, who is a chief steward with American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1776, said the union and the laid-off officers are waiting to see whether and how the University plans to continue each of the services. As the Chronicle went to press, laid-off employees were meeting with Barbara O'Connor, acting director of Public Safety, to learn how her department plans to cover the campus's safety needs and to inquire about alternative cost-saving measures, according to Kellogg.

     "All of these things need to be clarified for us as a union," he said. "We're not sure which "duties" are going to continue [to get done].

     "We have a contract; the contract should be followed." If work that had been done by union members before they were laid off is to be covered by non-unit people, AFSCME will want to know, he said.

     News Office director Barbara Pitoniak said the campus intends to continue to provide intra-campus transportation services for students and is looking into other ways to do so.

     Kellogg said he and his colleagues plan to circulate a petition protesting the closing of his department. Based on seniority, approximately half of the non-Police security officers are scheduled to be laid off Feb. 16. The others are scheduled for March 16.