Greg Higgs is a big man. A big bald black man. He's worked for more than a decade in security. His dad was a drill sergeant. And yet after having death threats left on his answering machine, after losing legal fight after legal fight, after being turned away by a number of news sources, he's remarkably calm. A lot fucking calmer than I would be after a lengthy battle against what he terms "the hydra" of Columbia University.

Higgs was terminated by Columbia after filing numerous complaints againts his superiors in a system where those very people were in charge of the complaints process and two days after winning a union arbitration against Columbia for worker's compensation pay that was owed to him. The specific charges? "Leaving his post" and "insubordination." That is, Higgs stepped away from his post to help a doctor attending a conference at the Health Sciences campus who was apparently having a heart attack and having been summarily suspended for helping him, called his union steward before leaving. This from a department that the union claims has seriously problems with following the proper disciplinary procedures and has repeatedly suspended or terminated employees summarily.

I was prepared for my meeting with Higgs to be a bit difficult. I had found out that Higgs had already talked at length to the Spec. When I asked the "reporter" (or "fucking tool") why he hadn't pursued the story, he made it seem like Higgs was unstable, a bit wild, maybe not-all-there. Instead, Higgs coolly articulated the corruption of the Columbia University security department and the humiliation faced every day by the rank-and-file security officers from their superiors. And indeed, when he shoved a fat file-folder of documents at me, I realized he had wisely, if obsessively, documented his many run-ins with supervisors: complaints had been filed, and complaints filed again about how previous complaints had been ignored. They pointed out two facts to me: a) Greg Higgs was an intelligent adult trying to be treated as such by a system that treated him as a dumb child, and b) now, more than ever, the Spec is a bunch of tools.

The thing is, Higgs was fired almost a year ago, from what he totally admits was a cushy job at the Health Sciences Campus. He doesn't fault Columbia in general as an employer. Benefits like health insurance and an apartment close to work confirm what I've heard from other security guards (frequently in the context of why they didn't want to go on record about the abuses in the security department): Columbia's not a bad gig. In fact, one of the benefits which most appealed to Higgs, one of the benefits stipulated by facilities workers' union TWU-241, is the chance to take classes at Columbia. With almost ten years as an employee of the University, Higgs got accepted to the School of General Studies.

This is when the harassment really started. Higgs had already encountered the corruption of the Security Department. He and others claim there is a prevailing atmosphere of racism and degredation between the largely-white supervisors in the department and the largely-black-and-hispanic force of security officers. As former officer Rick Cardona remarked, "The black and hispanic officers that would be treated with any consideration and respect were the ones that degraded themselves to subservient positions."

However, once he started taking classes, the harassment moved to a new level. Higgs describes being forced to work mandatory overtime in conflict with his classes, having his schedule rearranged to make it more difficult for him to attend classes, and being verbally harassed by his superiors. He sees these moves as part of a deliberate attempt to prevent ordinary security officers from becoming more educated (what he describes as a "plantation mentality") in a department run by retired police officers who often do not have expensive higher education themselves

Both Higgs and another former security officer, Rafe Negron, recall being given almost the exact same phrase from their superiors: "You're here to work, not to learn." One GS student and facilities employee, who now works as a custodian, applied for a security position, but when his potential employers found out he was dedicated to taking classes, they told him, "Here, your job comes first."

This contradicts Columbia's supposed policy of encouraging employees to improve themselves through education. And indeed, Higgs says that the academic staff he encountered were very encouraging. He showed me letters from his professors and from the Assistant Dean of Students for the School of General Studies, Scott Halverston, requesting that the security department allow Higgs to get to class on time. To no avail. "You have to be under the lash all the time," says Higgs. Negron claims that when a security guard wants to take classes, superiors immediatly start making him work double shifts or making sure he doesn't get relieved on time. Negron even recalls once being forced to wait so long to be relieved at the end of his shift, waiting to go to the bathroom, that he shit his pants.

"They scream at us like we're their sons or daughters," says Negron of his former superiors.

As might be expected, not a single Columbia administrator responded to my requests for comment. Their fucking loss: Greg Higgs is pissed off, and he's started a quest to vocalize his beefs with Columbia, instead of humbly accepting punishment for daring to demand to be treated like a human being.