BY ZACH WILLIAMS | The Cooper Union will seek a new security firm following students’ outcry about the school’s hiring of a firm headed by a TV pundit known for making inflammatory remarks.
University officials have not given a specific timeline for when a new firm will replace Beau Dietl & Associates, which will work with The Cooper Union administration in the meantime to develop a transition plan. University representatives said the decision has nothing to do with the professional conduct of B.D.A. security staff, which has worked with the university since early 2012 in other capacities.
“We regret that we did not anticipate the sensitivities expressed by members of the Cooper community about some of Mr. Dietl’s public statements,” wrote William Mea, the elite East Village school’s vice president for finance and administration, in a Sept. 20 e-mail to the campus community. “However, we recognize the significance of these concerns in the context of our campus climate, particularly during this tumultuous period in Cooper’s history. Mr. Dietl does, as well.”
A decision on a lawsuit challenging newly implemented tuition at the 155-year-old institution meanwhile has yet to be made public. The announcement of the security transition came less than a month after the school defended Dietl and his firm by saying that he has the right to publicly state his private positions.
“The faculty was told nothing,” said Professor Toby Cumberbatch of the announced transition away from B.D.A. security. In the same way, he and other faculty said, they weren’t notified when B.D.A. assumed campus security in the first place over the summer.
Cumberbatch, who teaches electrical engineering, is one of the plaintiffs suing the administration and its board of trustees over the tuition issue.
School spokesperson Justin Harmon told The Villager that the university has adequately informed faculty, staff and students about the security situation.
“We sent three separate community messages describing the security transition and responding to specific concerns that had been raised about it,” he said. “And we acted quickly when it became clear that the concerns were such that we should plan another transition.”
He added that discussion continues on how soon a new company will replace B.D.A.
Dietl, a regular talking head on Fox News, has attracted additional criticism in recent weeks by defending the Ferguson, Missouri, police officer who shot teenager Michael Brown. Speaking on Fox, Dietl said police precincts must be more heavily armed to defend the country from Islamic terrorists. And he said that Brown got shot in the head because “bullets go that way,” adding, “He was trying to stop this guy.”
Dietl did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
Students, Dietl and the campus administration will cooperate in deciding the campus’s future security measures, according to another Cooper Union spokesperson.
Seemingly absent from that discussion are the faculty and staff, a half-dozen of whom told The Villager that the Dietl flap demonstrates a “poisonous” relationship between the administration and them.
Junior faculty are reportedly scared of expressing their concerns to administrators lest they fall off the tenure track. And word of new developments at the school only reach faculty through social media and news outlets, faculty members said.
The tension follows several years during which faculty members said they faced enormous pressure to endorse tuition as a means of tackling financial problems at The Cooper Union. Toe the line or else Cooper’s Engineering School might shut down, faculty members said they were told.
The hiring of B.D.A. sent a message to faculty that dissent would not be tolerated within Cooper Union, faculty and staff told The Villager, some speaking on the condition of anonymity. They have heard for years from administrators that money is tight at the school, making some wonder why security has become such a priority for the administration, they added.
Security cameras were installed a few years ago to deter cheating. Now an ID card must be carried to come and go from buildings. Guests must be escorted by a member of the Cooper Union community.
“I’ve never been on a college campus with that level of security,” said Fred Fontaine, a professor of electrical engineering.
At a school where many faculty members were also once students, institutional memory runs long.
“It’s not The Cooper Union I knew,” said one professor who has taught there for more than two decades. His description of the situation echoed other faculty members and staff.
School records indicate no particular spike in campus crime between 2007 and 2013, with most crime categories having no reported incidents during those years. The expense of increased security comes even as faculty members remain without a new contract, noted Richard Stock, a professor of chemical engineering and head of the faculty union.
“My perception is that no one quite understands, nor has it been articulated to us, as to what is the sudden need for such expanded security and safety concerns,” he said.
Harmon, though, indicated in an e-mail that the campus was trying to be proactive regarding security concerns, which he did not specify.
“We host high-profile events and are proud of the security we are able to provide,” he wrote. “We want to ensure that, as much as possible, we prevent the sort of occurrences that would make our community feel unsafe.”
Stock added that a keypad lock now keeps the uninvited from the office of Cooper Union President Jamshed Bharucha, where Stock said he has not ventured for two years.
“We have no idea what the hell is going on and why,” Stock said.
In 2013, a group of students protesting the implementation of tuition occupied Bharucha’s office for 65 days from early May to mid-July.
Other faculty members said that disagreement between faculty and administrators is nothing new. Irving Brazinsky, a professor of chemical engineering, said students from a pampered generation are the real problem at The Cooper Union.
William Germano, dean of humanities and social sciences, declined to comment on Bo Dietl or his company’s role at the school.
He did say, however, that he remains optimistic about the school.
“All colleges are complex places and there are always divisions of opinion,” he said. “There are processes here, and there are many levels at which decisions get made.”
