On Sept. 6, Student-Alumni Committee on Institutional Security Policy managing partner James Herms discovered his organization had been suspended from using the Boston University Student Employment Office’s Job Board service after posts for two positions were removed. He still doesn’t know why.
STALCOMMPOL is a “nonprofit, altruistic group hoping to bring added security and student employment to BU,” a research assistant, who asked that his name not be used for professional reasons, said.
The research assistant said the company is currently involved in projects including preparing crime maps of the areas around the BU, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campuses.
The listing that STALCOMMPOL posted on the Job Board asked for research assistants and a graphic artist or cartoonist. According to the post, the research assistants would be responsible for compiling police-log reports, analyzing crime patterns around university neighborhoods, lobbying state legislators and proposing or implementing new programs for making campuses safer. The position pays $15 an hour.
The graphic artist would be responsible for designing a simple logo for the group, creating visually appealing page templates for the website and designing informational brochures for a salary of $19 an hour.
In an email to Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore, Herms said that he was “extremely satisfied” with the work of four BU undergraduates that he employed over the summer.
“Their first-hand awareness of students’ safety concerns made them invaluable for communicating with state legislators,” he said. “My organization needs access to BU’s pool of talented, creative and independent-minded students.”
According to Herms and the research assistant, STALCOMMPOL does not know why they were suspended from the Job Board listings.
“Our group has contacted the Dean of Students and Student Employment asking why,” the research assistant said. “However, both responded with more or less the same answer – ‘we don’t feel comfortable with your organization.'”
Herms acknowledged the SEO website says that “listings are posted at the discretion of the Student Employment Office” and said he hopes the director had a legitimate reason for removing the job post.
“I’ve provided more than enough evidence to establish that I’ve been a good employer,” he said. “If the SEO director has no evidence that I haven’t been, why would she conceivably want to keep students from working for me? If she doesn’t have a sound reason, she should post [the job] back up again.”
BU spokesman Colin Riley said the job post was removed due to a complaint about STALCOMMPOL in an email from a student.
“The student complained about a situation with the company on another campus,” Riley said. “We don’t have the staff to review all posts, so we simply removed this one.”
The Job Board states in a disclaimer on its website that “the Student Employment Office does not perform background checks on listing employers.”
Despite the disclaimer, Riley said, the SEO has removed and denied postings in the past from other companies and will continue to do so.
“We are a private university and we have no obligation to post every company’s jobs,” he said. “The Job Board is used for the benefit of the students and we welcome feedback from the students to help us decide which jobs are appropriate or not.”
STALCOMMPOL has no current affiliation with BU but has been involved with the university for at least two years. In 2003, BUPD Chief Robert Shea attended the company’s Conference on Campus Security with his second and third officers in command.
“The BUPD is without a doubt the most professional campus police department in the U.S.,” the research assistant said. “We probably help more with safety off campus than on campus. For instance, we donated nearly 200 of the Drink Detective test kits, as well as a bunch of Alcohol Test Strips, to the BU Women’s Center during the Activities Expo.”
Riley said that before this incident, BU had no history with STALCOMMPOL.
In 2004, STALCOMMPOL met with the BUPD again. This past winter, however, a former member of STALCOMMPOL made several unauthorized appearances at the station and the “BUPD hasn’t responded to voicemail or e-mail since,” the research assistant said.
Riley also said that just because a company is denied a listing on the Job Board does not mean that they can not still reach out to BU students.
“Companies can still reach students in plenty of other ways,” he said. “Just open any of the free newspapers on campus; there are hundreds of ads in there.”
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