Yale Cuts Security Positions

Yale University is eliminating its director of security, laying off two or three security officials and getting rid of stickers on ID cards, the Yale Daily News reports.

The layoffs are part of a reorganization effort at Yale Security that administrators said will simplify and streamline operations over  about two months and save the university money.

The director of Yale Security will be replaced by lower-ranking supervisors, Deputy Secretary Martha Highsmith told the Daily News

In September, Highsmith said Yale Security and the Yale Police Department finalized a budget for the 2010 fiscal year that would not require any personnel cuts and that no security or police officers would be let go “for obvious reasons.”

Yale Security and YPD have also cut some administrative costs, but Highsmith said those cuts will not affect student safety because they would not reduce the size of the patrol force.

University Secretary Linda Lorimer told the Daily News that the murder of Yale grad student Annie Le was a factor into the reorganization and that the school had to cut costs but keep "a strong and large security presence."

Another security change coming to Yale is the elimination of Yale ID card stickers, the Daily News reports.

Security guards looked at the stickers to determine if students or staff were currently enrolled or employed. Now, student and staff IDs will be electronically scanned to allow entry to school buildings.

This is one of several changes to happen since Le's death, but it is being done to improve security in general, not in direct response to Le’s death, officials said.

Raymond Clark III, a former Yale lab tech, was arrested and charged with Le’s murder on Sept. 17. He had not entered a plea and is being held at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution on $3 million bond.

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