Hey, Georgetown, feel any safer this week? The University thinks you should: Georgetown’s first-ever vice president for University safety, David Morrell, started on the job Monday.
The University maintains an impressive stable of vice presidents, whose purposes range from the prosaic “facilities and student housing” to the high-minded “mission and ministry” to the esoteric “technology licensing.” It seems something as dire as University safety would have merited a veep-level position years ago, but only after Sept. 11, 2001 did Georgetown consider creating such a position.
Two years of headhunters and search committees later, we get Morrell, who certainly comes with an impressive pedigree: As a Secret Service administrator, he oversaw security at the White House, the Naval Observatory and various other federal properties. His latest job was as Chief Administrative Officer for the Department of Homeland Security.
So what does Morrell have to do exactly? The University is not allowing Morrell to be interviewed until later in the semester, but his job is relatively clear: Keep our University, located in a major city vulnerable to crime and terrorist attack, as safe as possible. He will oversee all emergency response plans, such as those created under Senior Vice President Spiros Dimolitsas since 9-11. More interestingly, he will now directly oversee the Department of Public Safety, which used to answer to Dimolitsas. (Interestingly, though Morrell is a VP, he doesn’t answer to University President John J. DeGioia; he answers to Dimolitsas.)
A task that has been somewhat forgotten over the past months is finding a permanent replacement for former Department of Public Safety director William Tucker, who retired suddenly in April after 15 years at Georgetown.
According to University spokesperson Julie Green Bataille, the headhunters have not yet been summoned: no search committee has been appointed to look for Tucker’s replacement. Since his departure, then-associate director Darryl K. Harrison has served as acting DPS director. (Harrison has met with Morrell; he said in an e-mail “the University has made an excellent decision.”)
Morrell could overhaul DPS’ attitude toward campus policing. Under a long-standing policy imposed by Tucker and unlike many campus police forces, DPS officers do not carry weapons-even nonlethal weapons, leaving them at a clear disadvantage when dealing with armed criminals. The University also opposes expanding DPS’ jurisdiction into parts of the city surrounding campus, a possibility under a long-proposed law that languishes in the D.C. Council thanks in part to the University’s opposition.
Institutional momentum may be one reason these policies persevere, and Morrell fresh perspective could be his greatest asset. The question is whether yet another fresh perspective is needed inside DPS.
