More NYU cutbacks, this time to security officers, whose night shifts at certain dorms are being eliminated, according to the WSN. Guards are speaking out.
Even with reduced staffing, the dorm posts are normally manageable, guards say. But if anything goes wrong, there may be no one to respond immediately. In emergencies, guards cannot leave their posts; instead, they must call Public Safety and request backup.
That can take time, one noted. Once, after a roof-top alarm went off, it took more than 20 minutes for another officer to arrive at the building to check, the guard on duty at the time said.
Last spring, a faculty in residence suffered a heart attack. There were three guards working in the building; after being alerted by the faculty member’s spouse, they assisted emergency responders, holding doors and elevators to speed the team’s access to the professor, according to a guard.
The response “would have been slower” with the new cuts, the guard said.
At the Third Avenue North dining hall, a student reportedly fainted several weeks ago. Guards remained at their posts and called for backup. According to two guards familiar with the situation, the girl was left in the dining hall for five to 10 minutes waiting for the responding officer.
John Beckman isn't pleased.
“I think it is deeply regrettable that some security officers would try to frighten members of the NYU community by wrongly suggesting that entirely reasonable new deployment patterns in any way make them unsafe,” he said. “I consider it very much out of character with the kind of dedication to NYU the vast majority of our officers customarily display, and I would be disappointed if they were saying such things over a matter such as overtime.”
And President Sexton faces
another contentious town hall meeting in his failed faux-proletarian Brooklyn Prep sweatshirt.
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