Word: ssy
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...away. It was a lot of money, maybe $13,000, but that's not a year's worth of work. In the long run, the agreement wasn't worth the paper it was printed on." Harvard replaced the vacated positions with subcontracted workers from Security Systems Incorporated (SSI). Instead of the traditional black Harvard uniform, they wear bright white shirts with an SSI badge. "They gave us a contract with no raise for four years, across the board. That hurts," Billy says. "And we didn't get a raise in the last four years. The cost of living increases...
Less than a month ago, the staff suggested that Harvard's primary business ought to be education. We stand by that position and believe that Harvard is wise to stay out of the entirely different field of organizing a security force. A few isolated anecdotes about confusion during the SSI guards' first weeks on the job are not enough to discredit the outsourcing process...
...changing clothes in the Claverly Hall foyer, as one guard happened to be doing last week. Guards have not always responded quickly to calls on their radios and have at times responded to calls meant for others. Though some sort of adjustment is predictable, the high turnover of SSI employees makes us wonder if guards will be at Harvard long enough to learn their way around...
...number of the SSI guards are former Harvard guards who accepted a buyout and switched to SSI, and some of the SSI guards, like Cort Ellis in Quincy House, have made an effort to learn students' names and understand the maze of entryways, floor numbers and other quirks of Harvard Houses. However, since SSI is an outsourcer trying to provide services at the lowest price, these cases are the exception rather than the rule...
Harvard University Chief Francis D. "Bud" Riley emphasized last week, "I'm always concerned about security. That's my job." Maybe that job involves rethinking the decision to outsource--or at least making sure SSI guards are helping to keep Harvard safe...