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.