Washington and Lee’s Public Safety department fired Sgt. Austin Reter in January. Reter said he’s still trying to get his job back.
“I’ve been trying to get in contact with HR,” Reter said. “I’ve just received no response.”
Reter said he was called in for a meeting with Executive Director of Human Resources Jodi Williams and Interim Public Safety Director Alex Rabar after a 12-hour shift on Jan. 17. They informed him that his employment was terminated, and they told him to leave campus. Reter said the administration gave three reasons for his firing.
First, Reter drove students from parties back to campus after Traveller shifts had ended. He said he wanted to keep people from walking or driving home while drunk. But he said Williams and Rabar cited his behavior as grounds for termination.
Reter said the other two reasons cited for his termination were that he provided confidential information to the Lexington Police Department and repeatedly stayed on the clock past his 12-hour shift limit. He said former Public Safety Director Craig VanClief had given him permission to do both.
But Rabar and Williams were not looking for an explanation, Reter said.
“It was a really quick conversation,” Reter said. “They just told me that they weren’t here to discuss it.” He said they then escorted him out of the office.
Reter said he had no formal warning before he was terminated.
Reter’s firing is one of several recent Public Safety personnel changes. Director VanClief was quietly replaced by Rabar earlier this year, according to previous reporting by the Phi. And information on two other Public Safety employees, Assistant Director Chellie Bergos and Sgt. Schuyler Phillips, was recently removed from the university website with no explanation.
According to searches in the Washington and Lee staff directory and Workday, neither Bergos nor Phillips is still employed by the university. VanClief’s position is now listed as “Special Advisor to the Vice President for Student Affairs” in Workday.
Alex Miller, vice president for student affairs, runs the office in charge of Public Safety. He said he could not offer any clarification on the department’s employee turnover.
The Phi also reached out to both Rabar and VanClief using their university email addresses. Neither responded. Williams also declined to comment.
But not everyone has been silent on Reter’s firing. A petition on Change.org calls for the university to “Bring Back Sergeant Austin Reter.” 168 people have signed the petition.
“Austin showed that he truly cared about the students everyday,” the petition reads. “And in return Washington & Lee terminated him for it.”
Students have also taken to the anonymous social media platform Fizz to protest Public Safety’s current changes.
“Something suspicious is definitely going on with the administration here when it comes to our safety,” one post read. It received more than 50 upvotes in the app.
“I’m so sick of the administration placing minuscule bureaucratic details above the well-being of their students,” said another post. That one got more than 300 upvotes.
The petition also said students should be concerned for their safety, citing Reter’s role in providing students with safe rides home.
“If we don’t get him [Reter] hired back then things will continue to worsen on campus,” the petition reads. “The officers we have now do not care and support us the way he did. The officers we have now do not ensure that students all get home safely.”
Reter said that even though he did everything he was accused of, he doesn’t think any of his actions were fireable offenses.
“After everything I did while employed there,” he said, “they terminated me over false pretenses.”
But Reter said he appreciated the community’s support through Change.org and Fizz.
“It really did mean a lot to me,” Reter said. “I didn’t realize that many people actually remembered me on campus.”
