UVa security chief resigns after 17 months on the job
Charlottesville VA October 31 2019
Gloria Graham, the University of Virginia associate vice president for safety and security, has resigned from her position.
She will leave her post on Friday, according to UVa spokesman Wes Hester, who did not cite a reason for her resignation.
Her role will be filled by Tim Longo, the recently appointed interim chief of the University Police Department.
“The university has benefited greatly from Ms. Graham’s leadership and deeply appreciates the time and commitment she invested in her role,” Hester wrote in an email Wednesday morning.
Graham’s position was created in the wake of the Aug. 11 white supremacist torch rally on UVa grounds and was intended to oversee UPD, emergency preparedness and public safety.
In a May 2018 interview with the Progress, Graham said she intended the position to be highly collaborative.
A close working relationship between local, state and university police was absent in August 2017, according to a scathing independent review by former federal prosecutor Tim Heaphy, who is now the university’s lead lawyer.
During her tenure, Graham expanded the university’s safety and security features, added new cameras across Grounds and rolled out a new app that is intended to help the university community more easily alert law enforcement and each other about safety concerns.
Graham is the second high-profile departure from UVa’s police department in nearly a month following former Chief of Police Tommye Sutton’s resignation on Sept. 27.
University officials also declined to provide Sutton’s resignation letter or discuss the reason for his departure.
Longo, who will now fill both positions, is expected to serve for about a year.
Prior to Graham’s resignation, his duties included all of those of the previous chief, according to the university. Those duties include a seat on the Emergency Communications Center’s managing board.
When he assumed Sutton’s role, Longo’s salary became $190,000, with a sign-on bonus of $10,000 and a potential performance bonus of $15,000, according to his employment agreement.
Daily Progress
