Grady Morris, director of University police, submitted a resignation letter to Judy Daniels, dean of student life, on May 22 to confirm his immediate departure from the University. According to university officials, it may take a year before a replacement is chosen and management is turned over to the next University police director.
Morris’ last official day of work will be June 30, 2003, but he will use 320 hours of earned compensation time between May 22 and June 30.
“There were some philosophical differences between him and I about how to serve the campus and provide security,” Daniels said. “It wasn’t anything personal that couldn’t work elsewhere. It just wasn’t a good fit for the university, and in my opinion it was the best decision for all concerned.”
Morris agreed that there were strong philosophical differences but neither Morris nor University officials elaborated on what those philosophical differences were.
Daniels did say, however, that she believes a University police officer should serve as a teacher, mentor and role model, and that incidents on campus should be dealt with differently from the way they are dealt with off campus.
“Students will make mistakes, and police officers need to help them recover, not ridicule or belittle them. The approach to policing should be different on college campuses than if the same crime were committed in New Orleans,” Daniels said. “The mentality of a normal police officer is not necessary in most cases on campus.”
Danny Kraemer, University police captain, said he was not surprised by Morris’ resignation because there were some problems in the department, but he believes it was mostly Morris’s personal decision to move forward.
Michael Delaune, director of University relations, said safety will not be compromised at all due to this matter. Kraemer will take over administrative tasks in addition to his responsibilities as police captain. Morris said Kraemer understands the philosophy of policing and was a part of the ongoing Community Oriented Policing project and other activities.
Kraemer will also work closely with Daniels who will be in a support role of overseeing and authorizing operations. Daniels said there will be no change in the level of service the department will be able to provide.
According to Daniels, there are no plans for an immediate search for a replacement due to transitions that will take place on July 1 as Stephen Hulbert takes over Donald Ayo’s position as University president.
Eugene Dial, vice president of student affairs, said this will be a good time to study the operations of the department and identify what is needed to provide security. He said the process takes a while to go through since there is time needed to determine what administrative supervision is necessary for the department, write up a job description, advertise for a fair amount of time, set up a committee, screen applications and make the final recommendation.
“It would be idealistic for us to have one (a replacement) before the fall semester, but I don’t see that happening. I think it will have to be at least until January, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes until next June,” Dial said.
Dial said this long transition is not only taken up by the search process but also by getting the chosen person to officially leave his/her present position to take over the position at Nicholls. He said it is not likely that the chosen replacement will leave his/her present position at a university in the middle of a semester.
Morris stated in a press release he submitted to the Nicholls Worth that his resignation “stemmed from a desire to take (his) law enforcement career in another direction.” Morris said he could not comment at the time on any specific future plans but said he would like to continue in law enforcement in a university setting.
“I endeavor to embark upon new challenges with the help of the Lord and to obtain the goal of making my mission of Community Oriented Policing come to fruition,” Morris said.
Morris served the University police department for 23 months as director. In that time, Morris created a community oriented policing advisory committee, implemented a rape aggression defensive tactics unit, created the campus student officers program and reactivated the department’s bicycle patrol unit along with several other upgrades to officer regulations and the department as a whole.
“I’ve enjoyed myself here, and I think I’ve left the department better than when I entered,” Morris said.