Richard Lapierre, manager of Emergency Medical Services, resigned from his position Feb. 7, Margaret Klawunn, associate vice president for campus life and dean of student life, told Health Services staff Wednesday. Before the announcement, University officials had said Lapierre was "on vacation," causing confusion and concern among EMS staff and student volunteers.
Lapierre's last day at the University was Jan. 25. Since then, his absence led many at EMS to question whether he was still employed by the University, but no official word of his resignation was given to EMS staff until Wednesday.
A student EMT, who requested anonymity to avoid a potential conflict with University officials, told The Herald that Lapierre's departure was sudden.
On Jan. 25 - Lapierre's last day at the University - Lapierre met with administrators and later told EMTs that their shifts had been cancelled and that they should go home, the student EMT said. That was the last time that anyone at EMS spoke to Lapierre in a professional capacity, she said.
"We knew something was wrong simply by his absence," said Brenda Rubenstein '07, a student EMT. "He did everything for EMS ... from scheduling to paying people to dealing with paperwork."
"His absence was definitely felt," she said.
After the Jan. 25 incident, University officials repeatedly responded to questions about Lapierre by saying that he was "on vacation," according to a student EMT who spoke to administrators about Lapierre on Feb. 2.
But three student EMTs suggested that Lapierre might have been fired.
"(Administrators) told us not to talk to or about Lapierre, to prevent rumors from being spread," a student EMT said. "Why would they tell us not to talk to him if he had resigned?"
Lapierre declined to comment for this article.
University officials have denied that Lapierre had been fired. They first cited his vacation as the reason for his absence, and on Wednesday they said he had resigned.
Klawunn told The Herald that Lapierre "absolutely ... has not been fired. He has resigned." She said he made a "personal decision" to leave and declined to comment further.
Lapierre "had scheduled vacation from the seventh to the 20th (of February), and before he left we received a letter of resignation," Klawunn said. University officials decided to wait to announce his resignation until closer to the end of his vacation at the advice of Assistant Vice President for Human Resources Roberta Gordon.
Uncertainty about Lapierre's unexplained absence has disrupted a sense of normalcy at EMS, according to several student EMTs.
"EMS is not just like any student organization. We are like a family, and when you take away an important member, it causes some conflict," one source said, adding that Lapierre's departure - on the second day of the semester - came at a crucial time for planning and organizing the student EMT program.
"Our short-term plan is that we have been covering the shifts with the personnel in EMS. Because he scheduled vacation, there had been some arrangements in place already to cover his vacation," Klawunn said, adding that an interim director may be appointed if the need arises before a new director can be hired.
"We plan to advertise that job pretty quickly," she said.
Lapierre's duties have mostly been covered by other EMS employees and per diem supervisors, who are trained EMTs paid by the shift.
Edward Wheeler, director of Health Services, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that no new per diem staffers have been hired since Lapierre's departure and that "it is not unusual for us to use per diem supervisors when full time supervisors are out or on vacation (as Mr. Lapierre was this week)."
But some student EMTs say the number of unfamiliar supervisors has risen drastically since Lapierre's departure.
"Every shift I have been on this semester has been with someone I don't know," said a student EMT, adding that last semester she rarely worked with unfamiliar EMS supervisors.
Despite Lapierre's sudden departure, Klawunn said the student EMT program will continue to be supported by the University.
"We value the student EMT program, and we are actually having conversations with the emergency medicine department (of the Alpert Medical School) ... about ways that we could partner with them and do more for student education and opportunities around EMS," Klawunn said.
