A group of about 15 Georgetown student guards submitted a letter to administration officials yesterday threatening legal action following weeks of unpaid work and the removal of student guards from east campus buildings.
Lisa Gallo (COL ’06), a student guard who said she has not been paid since she started work in September, organized the group that drafted the letter. She said that student guards, who monitor access into campus residence halls, would wait for a response from the administration until Friday before considering legal action.
“I hope the administration is more receptive to solving this problem,” Gallo said. “Right now [a strike] is our last resort, but if it came to that I don’t think anyone would be opposed to doing that.”
The new tensions between student guards and university safety officials come during a period of increasing concern about security near campus, and less than a month after a public dispute between Georgetown and several of its subcontracted residence hall guards.
Over a dozen of the professional guards, who are contracted through Allied Barton Security Services, sent a petition to Georgetown officials claiming that the university had failed to fulfill its promise to increase their total compensation to at least $13 an hour. Administrators have disputed the claims.
A series of robberies in the Georgetown area prompted university officials to issue several warnings about personal safety over the last two weeks. In one incident, a student was robbed on 33rd Street after an assailant put a gun to her head.
Over 100 students make up the student guard program, which is administered by the Department of Public Safety. Gallo said that about 30 student guards, who are normally paid every two weeks, had responded to her e-mails saying that their paychecks had also been delayed.
“Our greatest concern is the failure of the university to properly distribute paychecks to many student guards [over] the past six weeks,” the letter from the students said. “Many students have been unable to pay for food, bills, medicine and other vital expenses.”
Gallo said that she has asked DPS Associate Director Doris Bey, who oversees the student guard program, about the pay problem.
“[Bey] said that she’s submitted the paperwork to payroll. Payroll tells us they’ve never gotten our hours,” she said. “Somebody’s not telling the whole truth.”
Bey could not be reached for comment Monday.
University spokeswoman Julie Bataille said that there have been “administrative problems that have caused some student guards not to get paychecks.”
“Most student guards began working in early September and at that time would have been put into the student employment system to begin receiving payment for their work,” she said. “Since then there have been some administrative glitches that have caused problems in processing.”
Bataille said that DPS is currently working with the payroll department and the Office of Student Employment to get students paid “in a timely manner.”
Like other student employees at the university, student guards give their time sheets to their department, which then submits paperwork to the student employment office before a check is cut.
Bey sent an e-mail to student guards on Friday apologizing for the pay issues.
“I want to ensure everyone that these payroll issues are being addressed,” she said in the e-mail. “We anticipate resolution of the issues within the next few working days.”
More tension between student guards and administrators centered on the replacement of student guards with contracted employees of Securitas Services in east campus buildings, including Nevils, LXR and Walsh, beginning Oct. 14.
Bataille said that the change came in response to increased security concerns.
“Contract security officers are now patrolling this area in an effort to increase the security presence in the area and stem recent incidents of crime.”
Bataille said student guards who used to work in the buildings have been reassigned to other locations on campus, and no guard has lost his or her job because of the change.
In the letter submitted yesterday, however, student guards expressed frustration with the new policy and the limited shifts now available.
“[To] point the finger at student guards is ridiculous,” the letter said. “We have reason to believe that the design of the building, with its various unguarded entrances, is the chief cause of the high theft rate. Furthermore, we see no reason why [contracted guards] will be able to protect student safety more effectively.”
Amber Kurtz (COL ’06) has been a student guard for two years, and has not yet been paid for work done this semester.
“I find it pretty reprehensible that the school has been doing this to the people who have been working diligently,” she said. “I also feel that the administration itself, and in particular our supervisor, has been nonchalant about the entire issue, which only further frustrates us.”
Kurtz added that students may have to pay more in taxes, because the large checks that will have to be issued to students who have thus far been denied pay may place some students in higher tax brackets.
“I think it’s important for people to know this is happening here at Georgetown. This is something that happens all over the place including universities.”
Daryl Collier (COL ’06), who has worked for the student guard program for three years, said that he has been receiving a paycheck regularly this semester.
“I haven’t had any problems,” Collier said. “Every once in a while in the past [a pay lapse] would happen, but it never happened on this scale until this semester.”
Collier said the recent paycheck issues for many student guards may because the program’s full-time coordinator left at the end of last year.
“A lot of work hasn’t been getting done as efficiently as it was in the past. They don’t have somebody to take care of it.”
The letter also voiced complaints that DPS officials have become increasingly inaccessible this semester. They are demanding a full-time supervisor in addition to the two graduate student coordinators currently employed.
