The University bills the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) around $26 per guard per hour, according to those administrators.

But McCombe and Randall A. Nash, an attorney for the guards, said this figure is far higher than the one which has been accepted as fact in the guards' ongoing negotiations with the University.

"The fee for service is $19.50 per guard," McCombe said. "The $26 figure is for police officers."

But one University official close to the negotiations says a higher number is more accurate, putting the actual cost per guard around $24.50 per hour.

About 92 percent of that fee accounts for wages, fringe benefits, vacation pay, holiday pay, sick pay and overtime, the source said. The remaining 8 percent goes towards administrative costs: equipment, office maintenance and pay to supervising HUPD officers.

The approximately $4.50 to $6.50 difference in the figures given by separate University sources and by the guards union is important to both because an explosion of private security companies offer the same services for half the cost.

And since the labor market is tight and wages nationwide have stagnated for the security industry, Harvard guards say they worry about the quality of out-sourced guards.

McCombe says he even worries about the guard personnel willing to work for a Harvard guard's beginning wage-"In today's economy, who's going to work for $8.22 an hour?"

An out-sourced guard would likely be paid as much or less money per hour.

Neither the guard officials, Nash, or University officials were able to explain the disparity in the accounts of guards' fees for service that each has publicized.

Working Overtime

McCombe this week said in addition to problems with money, the University is stretching its short-handed guard force with increased overtime duty.

And a guard work schedule showing the number of overtime shifts available supports this contention.

In the 25 days from March 25 to April 18 of 1998, guards worked 166 shifts of overtime, the document shows.

On weekends, the problem was most acute.