Q&A | Chief of Public Safety Randy Burba retires after 17 years of service
Long-time Chief of Public Safety Randy Burba is now retired after a 36-year-long career in public safety, 17 years of which were spent at Chapman. Photo courtesy of Chapman Public Safety
Marking the end of a 36-year-long career in university campus public safety, the last 17 of which were at Chapman, long-time Chief of Public Safety (PSAFE) Randy Burba retired March 1 and was succeeded by former Deputy Chief Rick Gonzalez.
A Jan. 24 email announcement from Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President Harold Hewitt to faculty and staff congratulated Burba on his retirement, though students were never sent a notification of PSAFE’s change in leadership.
Burba talked with The Panther Feb. 28, his last day at Chapman, about the decision to leave his role mid-semester, his legacy at the university and the state of PSAFE moving forward.
Burba’s answers have been lightly edited for clarity and stylistic standards.
Q: So there’s a lot to unpack here. I was initially just surprised by the news, because there was no formal announcement released to the students — only to the faculty and staff. Could you give me a basic summary of the reason behind this decision to leave the role mid-semester?
A: I’ve loved this job. I’ve been doing this for 36 years; 19 at the University of Southern California (USC) and then 17 here at Chapman. But as I’m getting older, I’m starting to have a little bit of — not necessarily health problems — but I really have bad knees, and I need some knee replacement surgery. So there’s just some things going on.
I felt like I needed to step away in order to just get healthy and take care of me. At the risk of sounding selfish, I was having trouble doing work and giving it 100%, and then being able to take care of myself.
I pined over it for probably a year. I’m just like, “Can I do this? (Or) can I stay and concentrate on myself?” (But ultimately), I just felt like I needed to do it; I needed to step away and work on myself, so that’s really what drove the decision. It wasn’t any major events or dissatisfaction with anything at work. I love Chapman, and I love helping students.
Q: I’m sure that, with this year especially, there’s an added burden of overseeing the COVID-19 safety and wellbeing of Chapman students, faculty and staff. Did that extrapolate your desire to leave your position?
A: Definitely these last two years have been challenging for all of us, but I would say that my whole career has been challenging and equally rewarding. (If) you take the last two years and look at how low the number (of positive COVID-19 cases) ultimately were at Chapman, (I’d say) the university has done a good job.
Fifty percent of the people are going to love what you’re doing, 50% of the people are going to hate what you’re doing. Leadership is not about 100% buy-in, because you’re never going to get that. You just have smart people sitting around, putting other people first and doing what’s best for the overall institution. That’s the best you can ask for.
Q: When did you formally alert the university of your intent to retire?
A: I can’t even remember when I finally said (I would be retiring). It was probably January — after the holidays. I think maybe having time away and being gone for the holidays kind of catalyzed (the decision to retire).
My wife is retired from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. She’s been retired for two years. Just kind of seeing how she’s been able to decompress a little, I’ve been looking at that and thinking, “That’d be nice to be able to do that together.” (My wife and I) being together at the holidays and just kind of really talking about (retirement) more is what really made the final push.
Q: We talked a little bit earlier about your passion for helping students and how it becomes harder to assist them directly in a chief role. Do you think if you still held a more hands-on position in which you interact with students more regularly that you would have been less inclined to retire?
A: I would say, partially yes. I think there’s a massive amount of responsibility, and it’s 24/7. You’re never off. And the one good thing as an officer or first-responder is that you can be off.
On your days off, you’re off. If something happens, it’s not your responsibility; it’s someone else’s responsibility when you’re not there. (But) for me, it was my responsibility whether I was there or not. So I think in some ways, being honest with (myself) — of course, that level of responsibility does take its toll. You get to a point where you’re like, “I need a break.”
Q: What state do you feel that you are leaving the department in?
A: I think (PSAFE) is in a really good place right now. All we can do as human beings is leave things better than we found them. And I have to say, I believe in my heart that I’ve done that.
(PSAFE) is in a good place as far as its reputation goes with students, faculty and staff, and we get very good scores on the student satisfaction surveys typically. We have good employees, good officers (and) good management that basically put the students and the university first. If you have people who do that, it’s going to be a good department.
Q: What are some of the major changes you’ve introduced to PSAFE and Chapman campus at large in your position?
A: What is totally tangible is the change in culture (of the department); everybody has this service-first mentality. I definitely see that change from when I came in, and it’s pretty awesome to see that and have known that I impacted that.
Some of the things that aren’t tangible (include the creation of) The Panther Safety app, the emergency alert system, some of the crime prevention programs (and) the fully student-run safe ride program. I think when we started, we had only 10 or 12 employees (in PSAFE), and we have over 40 now. (Also), we didn’t have a shuttle system when I got here, so we basically started and implemented that.
We have a very tough job. We’re trying to protect students and create a safe environment, but we’re also here to enforce rules — Chapman rules, laws, things like that — which is never popular.
You stop and get somebody in trouble for drinking, and they’re not happy to see you. They’re breaking a rule, and you have to tell them they’re being referred to (the Office of) Student Conduct.
So when you think about what we actually have to do, it’s how we do it that is more important. On a scale (of one to five), we get a four in terms of people’s ratings of how they feel about PSAFE. So I think that’s just a testament to the fact that the way we do things shows that we care and we’re actually doing it for the right reasons.
That’s a culture that I’ve been proud to build and pass over to the new leader.
Q: How did you initially find out about Chapman and first get started working at the university?
A: I was working at USC in Los Angeles, and I was second in charge there; I was the captain, and I was in charge of about 240 people. It was a huge department. I was putting together plans for the (Los Angeles Memorial) Coliseum for football games (with around 100,000) people. That was also very stressful.
I didn’t think I’d ever leave USC actually. I liked it there, and I was having a good time, and then all of the sudden, things changed. A couple of new bosses came in, I wasn’t really clicking with them, and I didn’t feel comfortable working for them. I didn’t like what I thought were some questionable ethics (within the department).
I didn’t want to uproot my family. I didn’t want to move. But of course, I applied to jobs all over the country.
All of a sudden on one of the job boards, there was a job (posting) for Chapman, and I had never heard of Chapman, to be honest. Thirty miles from (USC), and I’d never heard of it. So I came down (to Orange) and applied, and the rest is history.
Everybody’s heard of Chapman now. It’s been a great run. It was really nice to watch Chapman really flourish and blossom and to be part of that.
Q: How effectively do you think Chief Rick Gonzalez will be able to hop into the role mid-semester? Do you have any thoughts on his candidacy for the position?
A: I think (Gonzalez) will be great. When I hired Rick four years ago, he was already in a chief role at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, and I had worked with him at USC. I knew him, and I knew his ability and how he worked. I figured, “I’m not going to be here forever,” (and that there was) a chance he might be my succession plan.
I wanted to hire somebody that I knew could take over, so it all kind of just worked out essentially. Rick’s been in this business for over 20 years: he’s got the experience, and he’s got the understanding of how to work in this environment.
Q: Can you elaborate on some of the structural changes set to occur under Associate Vice President of Risk Management Albert Vasquez, as outlined in the Jan. 24 email announcement from Hewitt?
A: (Hewitt) hired Albert, who was a chief in Santa Monica, but he also has a lot of environmental health and risk management experience. (The university) saw it as a great opportunity to have him oversee almost a whole new division — combining risk, safety and public safety and putting it under his umbrella as a vice president.
Rick’s still the chief, and he’ll still run everything like I did, but he’ll just report to Al Vasquez now instead of Harold Hewitt. It doesn’t really change fundamentally what the department is doing or anything like that.
Q: Do you have any fond memories from your time on campus
A: I’ll just miss the camaraderie with students and really just the campus life in general. It’s great to walk around Chapman and see people in the (Attallah) Piazza talking, or see people in Starbucks and at some of the little events on campus.
I’m not going to miss working undie run.
Q: What does your last day entail? What are you doing before you leave and are done with campus?
A: A lot of (my last day) is answering emails. But there’s the formal stuff (too); I got an email from (Human Resources) saying, “Hey, do your last timesheet, and you need to turn in all your (equipment).”
I’m having lunch later today with a couple of the Fire & Life Safety guys. They made some chili, so it’s kind of like a farewell. I’m (also) meeting with some of the other officers I’ve worked with; they’re having lunch with me tomorrow.