Guards found asleep again

Officials implement police spot checks, promise review of McGinn's contract During one two-hour period early yesterday morning, The Daily Pennsylvanian photographed four McGinn Security Services guards and one Residential Living desk worker asleep on the job. University officials said last night that they have called for an expedited review of the McGinn contract, which may end in its termination, and the immediate implementation of University Police patrols of on-campus residences. Between 4 and 6 a.m. yesterday morning, the guards responsible for the Quadrangle, Mayer Hall, Stouffer College House and Graduate Tower B were photographed asleep while on the job. In addition, a desk worker from W.E.B. DuBois College House was photographed sleeping. In the case of Mayer Hall, a guard was photographed asleep on the couch adjacent to her work station. And, guards working the Quad were observed asleep on three separate occasions during the same period. Each of the five guards who were photographed denied having been asleep, but at the same time, not one of them said they had seen a DP photographer. The photographer was standing less than 10 feet away from each guard post. This is the second time in slightly over a year that the DP has photographed McGinn guards asleep on the job. Several McGinn guards also said they are poorly trained, badly supervised and are not subject to sufficient background checks. Joseph McGinn Sr., president of the security services company, said yesterday that his company "is on top of our people to do the job." "Obviously, we're very concerned," he said yesterday. "We've put a lot of time, money and effort into trying to prevent this." McGinn would not discuss the specific incidents, however, because he said he has not spoken to the individuals in question. Since the beginning of the school year, though, seven security guards have been dismissed for sleeping while on duty, he said. Acting Vice Provost for University Life Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum said last night that "individuals have already been dismissed" as a direct result of yesterday's incidents. James McAlister, the McGinn Security supervisor for the "graveyard shift," which runs from midnight to 8 a.m., said at about 6 a.m. yesterday he was making his second "round" to check on McGinn guards in residence halls. He added that he usually is on his third or fourth round by that time. "I'm not able to make as many rounds [when we are understaffed]," McAlister said. He added that if he finds a guard asleep, the guard is dismissed on the spot, as is dictated by McGinn's policies and procedures manual. As of 6 a.m., though, he had not dismissed anyone. McCoullum and other administrators said last night that the allegations of guards sleeping are to be taken very seriously. "As an officer of the University and as a parent, I feel these security lapses are worse than unconscionable and changes must be affected immediately," she said. "For whatever money we're paying [McGinn], the students' lives and well-beings are at stake and any risk is too great," she added. To this end, she is meeting today with the University's General Counsel Office to review the terms of McGinn's contract with the University. That contract, which is set to expire in July, 1997, is valued at more than $899,500 a year, according to a June 1992 Residential Living report. The contract, Residential Living Director Gigi Simeone said, is subject to review at any time. Simeone said yesterday, after hearing about the reports, that she is very troubled by guards who sleep while on duty. "As you know, we are very concerned," she said. "We have a very elaborate system of checking. What we have to do is see if there are other steps to institute to make sure this is happening." Simeone added that her department shares McGinn's policy of terminating any guard found asleep on the job. Residential Living procedures also calls for the dismissal of any desk worker found asleep while working. Simeone said Residential Living workers who conducted spot checks of 10 University dorms yesterday morning around 4 a.m. did not find any guards asleep on the job. Residential Living's expectation of graveyard shift desk workers, Simeone said, is that they fill out an incident report if they see a guard not doing his job properly. A Residential Living desk worker in the Quad declined to comment yesterday morning when asked if he had seen a security guard sleeping at his post, despite three documented observations of a guard sleeping. Simeone said after last year's DP report of guards asleep on the job, Residential Living called in a quality management team to focus on security guard performance. The group's primary focus is the performance of guards on the "graveyard shift," she said. Because of the quality management team's suggestions, Residential Living officials instituted a system of random spot checks, such as those used yesterday morning. Three spot checks are dispersed throughout the weeks at randomly dispersed hours, Simeone said. Constance Clery, co-founder of Security on Campus, the first clearinghouse for security infractions on college campuses, said last night that sleeping guards leave students wide open to assaults, robberies and even murder. She added that it is "absolutely unforgivable" for guards to be asleep, considering the price of tuition, room and board at the University. And, she added, considering this is the second such incident in little over a year, there should be better spot checks. "They were warned before, and I would think that it would be their responsibility to send someone to check on their guards," she said. "It leads me to question whether they really did a good check." Clery also questioned why the University does not have a stricter system of checking on guards and requiring them to meet the demands of their jobs. "Are they waiting for some horrendous murder or victimization to happen?" she said. University Interim President Claire Fagin said last night that certain inappropriate behaviors by security guards can merit an overhaul of the system. "I would think that a crime does not have to happen. There are behaviors that can be sufficient to say enough is enough," she said. Fagin, who called the incidents "grotesque," said University Police officers are going to patrol residences on a short-term basis to monitor the guards. She added that there will be a relatively rapid effort to change the structure of security on campus. "We're asking the police to do the monitoring and that's never been done before," she said. Simeone said police have done spot checks in the past and she welcomes the initiative. "The police have always done spot checks and have always been welcome in our buildings to make sure the security services have been functioning well," she said. "I'm pleased to see they're upgrading this." She also said that the implementation of University Police checks will supplement Residential Living's spot check system, under which there have still been problems with the security guards. University Police Commissioner John Kuprevich said police officers started their spot checks during the midnight shift this morning. "We started this evening on the midnight shift to have police officers on their patrol sectors make random and frequent checks of all residential areas," he said. Kuprevich added that University Police is bringing in an extra officer dedicated to checking the residential units in every patrol sector. The long-term solution may not lie in simply changing security companies, though, Kuprevich said. "We should take a look at how we do the security in the front end of our residential units, as opposed to changing over to another company," he said. The solution, he said, might be "to get whichever company is most capable of having people there to do the job and simply to continuously check these people to make sure they're alert." McCoullum said she is calling for an immediate change in the way that the security system is currently conducted to eliminate the inherent structural problems. "We have a fundamental structural problem in campus safety and security," McCoullum said. "This to me is an unfortunate validation of my call for a fundamental change." McCoullum said problems of safety and security are historical problems at the University. She is currently advocating that the University hire one agent for institutional security, as opposed to an outside agency. "All I can do is the best I can do in this term to make concrete changes, and I am going to do that," she added. "Regardless of the history, that's what I've committed to." Among the possible solutions to structural security problems, McCoullum said, is the reassignment of residential safety and security operations to another University office that has the singular responsibility for all safety and security on campus. Kuprevich said McGinn's "run-of-the-mill" security has a definite impact on University Police's ability to secure campus. "I think their effectiveness certainly has an impact on our ability to make a safe campus," he said. Kuprevich said there has to be an enhanced level of coordination between security services and University Police. "We're trying to develop an overall plan which will integrate security, security technology and the operations of the campus police department," he said.