“Fewer student security officers are patrolling the dorms this semester, but administrators say the shortage of guards in August was caused by 16 students who did not return after telling the residence department they would.”

No offense, but this is the largest amount of crap I think I’ve ever seen in print anywhere.

Now that I’ve got your attention, let me explain why.

At a meeting held last year within the Department of Residence that was supposedly for answering questions of concerned student security guards, which ended up being an “If you don’t like the way policy is changing, there’s the door” type of meeting —nothing got accomplished except showing the guards that they were about as important to the policy making administrators as a hemorrhoid would be.

We, the student security staff for ALL associations, were informed that replacements would NOT be hired for those of us who did not return.

I had already informed my hall director supervisor that I would not be returning for numerous reasons.

I know there is no chance I was the ONLY one to tell the policy controllers I wouldn’t be returning. So for them to try and turn it back upon the young men and women who put their blood, sweat and tears into that program to make it a success and claim that it’s their fault is the biggest, most immature act of “covering your ass” I think the Department of Residence has ever done.

Our computers were to be taken away, staff e-mail was to disappear, the INSANE notion that there should only be one guard working per association at a time was discussed (which is dangerous and personally, I don’t think $6.50 an hour was enough for anybody to warrant putting their ass on the line), hours were cut from 8 a night to 4 a night (which would make a guard have to work twice the amount of nights to receive the same hours and that throws off your entire sleep schedule), it didn’t matter where you lived in the Department of Residence because you were going to work where they told you, student supervisor and assistant supervisor positions were to be eliminated, etc, etc, etc. The list isn’t anywhere close to stopping.

If, at any point in time, the administrators were to make the security staff feel even remotely appreciated, maybe they wouldn’t have had such a high turnover rate per semester.

Maybe, if at the start of the training year, people weren’t given ultimatums on things, they’d feel like it wasn’t a hostile working environment.

Maybe, if when you leave for a semester for a school or government-sanctioned reason, you felt like you had a shred of job security, you’d feel more compelled to be loyal to your employer.

But any of those things that did occur during my two and a half years with student security have long since vanished.

Those, my dear fellow students, are just a few reasons why student security members may not have returned. Would you?

Please thank the members of Department of Residence staff who have worked so hard to make this a positive living environment for students whenever you get the chance. RAs and HDs never cease trying to improve living conditions for the students that reside on their floors.

But please don’t forget those guards (past and present) who have stayed up late hours and weathered cold nights to ensure a safe living environment for everybody.

It’s just a shame that it isn’t these people I’ve mentioned that are making the policies. Then again, maybe it should be.

Maybe that’d be a good place for some budget cuts.

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Angie Chipman

Senior

Psychology and history