Protesters Urge Administration to Increase DPS Wages
In an ongoing effort to demand increased wages for Department of Public Safety officers, students rallied in Red Square and delivered a second petition to university officials Friday afternoon.
About 30 protesters circled together under a steady downpour of rain, chanting, “What do we want? Fair pay! When do we want it? Now!”
A coalition of student leaders organized the event in response to the recent increase in bias-related incidents on and near campus. Organizers hope that a wage increase will attract more candidates to the DPS roster, thereby increasing the number of officers and helping to deter people from committing crimes in the future.
Speakers at the rally said the university was not living up to its Jesuit ideals, arguing that the university pays DPS officers too low a wage to maintain a safe community. According to the speakers, DPS officers are the lowest-paid campus police officers in Washington, D.C.
Rally organizer Chessa Gross (SFS ’10) emphasized that a DPS wage increase is just one step in addressing the problem of hate crimes on campus.
“It’s also about changing the culture of Georgetown,” Gross said. “It has a lot to do with changing the culture of intolerance.”
Gross also said that increased student outreach and more actions promoting diversity and pride must be combined with an increased security presence in order to decrease bias-related incidents.
Fifteen minutes into the rally, protesters marched to Healy Hall and delivered petitions to University President John J. DeGioia and Senior Vice President Spiros Dimolitsas.
“DPS is chronically understaffed … [and] safety systems are frequently unable to provide sufficient services,” the petitions stated.
The chants did not subside as protesters climbed the staircase of Healy Hall, or when bystanders urged them to respect the classes that were in session at the time of the rally.
Erik Smulson, DeGioia’s chief of staff, met protesters to receive the letter on behalf of the university’s president. LaMarr Billups, assistant vice president for business policy planning, received the letter on behalf of Dimolitsas.
For Jheanelle Brown (SFS ’10), an ally of the protesters and president of the Georgetown chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the event’s focus was to provide DPS the resources and compensation necessary to reduce the rate of bias-related incidents on campus.
“As students of color, we take our safety very seriously,” Brown said. “We’ve had negative experiences in terms of being scared for safety being a minority on campus, especially women. Safety is a very serious thing because people are bigoted and hateful.”
At the end of October, 28 bias-related incidents had been reported during the 2009 calendar year. There have been five bias-related incidents reported so far in November. In 2008, a total of 17 incidents were reported, according to statistics from DPS. Of those in 2008, four were considered hate crimes that warranted further DPS investigation. To date, three such crimes have been reported for 2009.
University officials could not be reached for comment on the rally.
Nov 17 2009 at 11:12 a.m.
The protesters, however well-intentioned, seem confused.
** Do they want to increase wages for existing officers? In the short term, this does nothing to improve campus safety. It pays more money to the same people to do the same thing. Over many YEARS, with turnover, DPS will attract better candidates. (And you're providing the current officers less incentive to leave, decreasing the likelihood of turnover.)
** Another option would be to fire all current DPS officers, and hire better officers at higher wages. This would improve the quality of the force sooner, but would involve an incredibly difficult transition period during which campus safety would be under the purview of novice officers. Difficult to imagine this ever actually happening.
** Let's forget about wage levels. Why not petition for a bigger DPS budget, to increase the number of DPS officers on campus? That seems like a much better solution if you think improving DPS services will be the best way to help campus safety.
And over time, maybe include incentives for officer performance. Let's have DPS supervisors give evaluations to officers, so they can reward good ones and fire bad ones. Doesn't the current compensation system work like a union's that just pays DPS officers based on tenure? Let's fix that.
Nov 17 2009 at 8:05 p.m.
Is this a joke?
Nov 19 2009 at 9:46 a.m.
A few gays are called names and that is the impetus for a sudden interest in student safety? Not like people have been robbed for years now..
I wonder how DPS feels to be the topic of yet another useless student rally. "Increase their wages!" shouted from the same voices as "no more sweatshops!" and "protect the homeless!" DPS officers are not charity cases.