Message regarding Department of Public Safety officer Joe Shanley

Thank you for sharing your thoughts regarding DPS Officer Joe Shanley. Last September, the SU Department of Public Safety undertook a comprehensive structural reorganization. The goal of this was to create better lines of communication throughout DPS and more effectively align our operations, resulting in more efficient and improved public safety services for the University community and partnering law enforcement agencies. The announcement made at that time about these changes can be found here.

The next step in that process is occurring now. A nine member search committee comprised of DPS Commanders, a DPS Public Safety Officer, an official from a local law enforcement agency, a SU Human Resources representative, and other University officials recently interviewed 30 internal DPS applicants to fill 17 new positions at the first line supervision, investigation/crime prevention and confidential support levels. The search committee’s task was to undertake a full assessment of each applicant, and submit recommendations to the Associate Chiefs/Associate Director regarding which candidates best fit the established criteria for the newly defined positions.

We hope you will understand that due to privacy concerns and HR policy, we are not able to discuss the specifics of any individual employee’s situation. We can however tell you that all of the candidates were given full consideration on the merits of their background, experience and skill set, and any decisions made were based solely on who was the best fit for these new positions. Critically, no candidate is losing their job and each will be offered a position within DPS that is the best fit for their experience and expertise.

Officer Shanley’s role with DPS will continue to offer him opportunities to engage the campus in the very positive way that students expect. As with each of our DPS employees, we value Officer Shanley’s contributions to our organization and the strong connections he has made with the campus community. We will continue to do so as we move forward with this new organizational structure, which will result in more unity of command, improved accountability, and the capacity and agility to better serve the SU community.

Sincerely,

Louis Marcoccia, Executive VP and Chief Financial Officer

Thomas Wolfe, Senior VP and Dean of Student Affairs

Kal Alston, Senior VP for Human Capital Development