Stern students working on a group project in the unguarded Henry Kaufman Management Center.
How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
After hours in the Henry Kaufman Management Center, students open locked doors for food delivery employees and other guests and use locked professors' office spaces as study lounges.
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The empty security desk as Warren Weaver Hall during the night guard shift, which is held from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.
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In Weaver Hall, students can gain entry into the building and are able to make free photocopies on faculty machines without passwords.
And in the Silver and Brown buildings, which house dozens of science labs, no guards patrol the building overnight — giving those left inside free reign.
The policy that makes this possible isn't new. WSN documented incidents last year when students were able to gain entry to two academic buildings after hours. But as the number of guards working late shifts has decreased due to NYU's recent budget cuts, students are knowingly being left alone in more buildings without security guards after 11 p.m.
In total, there are 54 guard posts at NYU. Due to recent changes, Public Safety officers do not man all of them during the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift, according to Jules Martin, vice president for Public Safety. Now, fewer officers are on-duty each night. Instead of working at a specific post, some of them are assigned to mobile patrol duty. Those guards stop by buildings that lack full-time coverage.
Public Safety officers say that students are left unguarded in the Barney building, Silver Center, Henry Kaufman Management Center, Weaver Hall and the Kimmel Center. The officers spoke to WSN on the condition of anonymity, since they are prohibited by the university from speaking to the media.
Last week, WSN reporters entered Weaver, HKMC and Silver before officers left their post. After 11 p.m. (when the guards left), the reporters were not asked to leave. Additionally, students let WSN reporters into Weaver Hall and HKMC after guards had locked the doors for the evening.
Last fall, three guards worked overnight in Weaver, Tisch and HKMC. But now, only one remains in Tisch Hall. That guard is not assigned to cover HKMC or Weaver (Tisch's neighbors) and does not monitor those buildings. WSN reporters saw more than 40 students remain at HKMC after the guard had left. At least 18 students were permitted to enter Weaver Hall (let in either by Public Safety officers or other students), and a few students worked late into the night at the Silver Center.
"What's the purpose of security if you leave the classrooms open with all of the expensive equipment and no one watching?" said a Public Safety guard who works at a building frequently locked with students still inside.
Martin acknowledged: "Whether an officer is sitting there or not, you could have penetrated those locations."
He added, "Were you able to get into the buildings? Sure. Would we prefer that you would not have gotten into the buildings the way that you did? Sure."
NYU outsourced all of their maintenance employees to Collins Building Services last year. A CBS maintenance worker in Silver said the building used to have 24-hour surveillance.
"Now, we don't have anyone [after 11 p.m.]. If you need one, you have to call him," the worker said.
In the last year, at least four incidents occurred in buildings after guards had locked the doors. In February, a woman was arrested after she was found breaking into HKMC at night to use one of the computers. In May, a student's iPod was stolen from the Barney Building's print studio. On June 24, a fire alarm was pulled in Silver. And in October, a staff member's laptop was taken from Silver. All of these incidents are recorded in the Department of Public Safety's crime log.
But buildings are not left unguarded only overnight. At a Tisch building on Second Avenue, there's no guard on duty from the time of the building's opening at 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Instead, the elevator engineer employed by CBS checks IDs.
"I'm the guard now," said one CBS employee sitting in the chair ordinarily reserved for the guard on duty. "The guard is coming at three."
As per NYU policy, in order for a building to receive guards, building administrators must request them. According to Jan Hamilton, a Public Safety assistant director, no guard has been requested for the building in decades, so none is provided.
According to NYU Executive Vice President Michael Alfano, who oversees the university's budget, the Public Safety department has slashed $552,000 in overtime costs each year, in addition to saving $1,146,000 in "re-engineering techniques."
Although Martin would not say how many hours were cut, guards said overtime pay ranges from $23 to $34 an hour — meaning that NYU's savings equals somewhere between 16,000 and 24,000 fewer hours worked by Public Safety officers each year. (But Martin said no guards have been laid off since 2007.)
Martin argues that although there are fewer officers on duty, Public Safety's ability to address problems has not suffered.
"We are working smarter, not harder," he said.
The guards' union filed a grievance against the university over the reduction in overtime hours, Mike Pidoto, president of the security officers' union, said. The Department of Public Safety and the union have not yet reached an agreement, and the dispute could head to arbitratration.
And students seemed unfazed by the idea of being left in a building without security officers on duty.
"As long as the doors are locked, I don't feel at all at risk," said Stern senior Demetri Karagas, as he ate his dinner after 11 p.m. in HKMC. "I've never felt unsafe in this building."
