The end of the school year brought an end to the jobs of the
female security monitors in the women's residence halls
A spokesman for campus
Security/Police said that after reviewing the program internally
and consulting outside professionals the department decided the
monitors weren't accomplishing the department's mission of providing
security to all resident students.
A replacement program
will have security officers assigned to groups of residence halls.
They'll patrol outside, walk through public areas inside, and
work with hall staff and students.
The change eliminated
the positions of 14 full-time monitors, three of whom were eligible
to retire. The affected employees were provided a severance package
that continued their benefits as well as assistance in making
a career transition.
The security monitors were descendants of the "fire watch" program
set up several decades ago to have someone alert during the night
who could respond to catastrophic situations like fires. The hall
monitors were eliminated from the men's halls in 1980 after fire
sprinklers and smoke detectors had been installed everywhere.
Staff in the women's halls wanted to keep them around because
co-education was still relatively new and rectors felt they needed
additional staff.
(July 2004)
