Notes and Errata Due in part to apparent misperceptions or misrepresentations of events by authoritative sources, the conflict between Harvard University’s management and its security guards has been difficult for newswriters to investigate adequately. One reasonably good source of information is May Habib, Guards Say Union Sold Them Out, Harv. Crimson, Apr. 7, 2004, http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=502423, read in conjunction with This Week’s Corrections, Harv. Crimson, Apr. 16, 2004, item 6.
The university eventually paid $1.2 million in damages to one of the employees. Abramian v. Harvard Coll., Middlesex Superior Ct. (Sept. 5, 1997). Reviewing a perceptive article by Kathy Gilsinan, Harvard Security Lapses Blamed in String of Sexual Assaults, Colum. Spectator (New York), Feb. 24, 2002,
At Harvard University’s Longwood Medical campus, all of the guard stations face the building interiors. The security guards watch people who are inside the building, not outside. An average of 78 violent crimes a year are reported at the Longwood campus; almost all occurred on the immediately adjacent streets, sidewalks, or parking facilities. Compare Boston University’s medical campus, where guard stations face the streets and sidewalks. An average of 2 violent crimes a year are reported at that campus. Whatever factors are responsible for the lower rate of reported crime, a lower rate of crime reporting is not one of them. To the contrary, Boston University received the 1996 Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Award: “The administration at Boston University has demonstrated leadership through honestly assessing campus crime problems and candidly informing its customers (students and parents) of the situation. The result is that informed students take precautions and campus security performs deliberately.” Security On Campus, Inc., Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Award Recipients for 1996 (2001), http://www.securityoncampus.org/aboutsoc/cleryaward/1996.html. 3 Jan. 2007. Stalcommpol Inc. Ed. J. Herms. |
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