Although McCombe is accountable to the board,several guards say they are worried about hispower.

"For me, the problem is that this bodynegotiates with the University, and yet they haveno one watching over them," says Mike Cavanaugh, anine-year veteran in the guard force.

It is difficult to map out the route ofnegotiations since 1996. Neither McCombe norHarvard officials would comment on the number oftimes the sides have met or on the issues thathave been brought up.

Sources with knowledge of the negotiations saycontract talks had stagnated until the fall oflast year because Harvard was restructuring itsoffice of labor relations-and also because theguard union could not act coherently.

At last report, the negotiations had stalledagain. Although various proposals have beenpresented at the negotiations, none has takenhold.

Sources say the talks have stalled over how tobuy out the contract of older guards, and howlarge a salary guards ought to be paid whenoutsourcing their tasks is far cheaper.

Left Behind

As negotiations drag on and the guards' statusremains in limbo, HUPD has forged ahead withoutthem, moving to a community-policing policy thataims at an involvement in the student communitysimilar to that of the security guards now.

The man behind this policy change is Francis H."Bud" Riley, the chief of HUPD.

"When I got here in 1996, the guard force was aseparate department within the department," Rileysays.

And by all accounts, it was in disarray.

"When I looked at the history of it, I had seenthe disadvantages of the structure of the policeforce. The guards had individual supervisors, andthey were removed from the police officers," Rileysays.

"I viewed the majority of the problems thatwere coming to my attention as the result of alack of management structure," Riley says.

So he sought to streamline the department. Helaid off four guard supervisors and thesuperintendent of the force, placing daily guardoperations under the watch of HUPD sergeants.

But then, Riley says, he ran into a wall.