University Increases Security Supervision

In an attempt to clamp down on the discipline of University security guards, Harvard will hire two new security supervisors, according to several guards.

Supervision has waned in recent months, with some guards reporting that they have not seen their supervisors in weeks. Security supervisors are supposed to check on guards once each night, guards say.

The supervising jobs, which are being advertised throughout the security unit, come less than a year after a University investigation into alleged discrimination against guards by their supervisors.

A report released by Vice President and General Counsel Margaret H. Marshall last July found that there had been no discrimination against the guards.

But the Marshall Report also said that a lack of properly trained supervisors in the unit had helped to create "an adversarial absence of mutual mistrust" between guards and the security unit's management.

As one of its 17 recommendations, the report recommended that the University "increase the size of the supervisory staff to allow for adequate coverage during all shifts, especially peak shifts."

The new hires will increase the number of supervisors from four to six.

Sources in the Harvard Police Department, which oversees the security unit, said the new supervisors would most likely be guards from within the unit. But officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the hiring of internal candidates might only add to tensions in the unit.

"I think that would be a total disaster," one source said. "It would be bringing in the same garbage that's hurt the place."

Manager of Operations for Security Robert J. Dowling, who is in charge of the hirings, was not in his office this weekend and could not be reached for comment.

Two years ago, the security unit was rocked by allegations by 11 former and security employees that they had been discriminated against by department management. A host of University officials--including Dowling and Police Chief Paul E. Johnson--denied the charges, and the Marshall Report bore their opinions out.

The employees, however, have criticized the report, charging that it is part of a University cover-up of their charges. Four guards are currently pursuing legal action against Harvard.

In fact, the case of former security guard Viatcheslav Abramian is scheduled to go to trial in Middlesex County District Court on May 3.

Abramian, who had charged he was discriminated against because he is a Russian citizen, was fired in January 1993 after an altercation with another guard in the security office.

Department officials said Abramian was fired because he started the fight. But Abramian is claiming the firing constituted retaliation for his decision to speak publicly.