Students discuss safety issues with Rodin

College sophomore Lori Spector said she was the victim of a mugging outside her apartment at 40th and Pine streets. Nursing junior Sarah Fried said she lives at 17th and Lombard streets -- just beyond the Escort Service boundaries -- and has to walk the extra blocks home every night in fear. Fried and over 60 other students expressed their concerns, asked questions and pleaded for answers last night in a meeting with University President Judith Rodin specifically geared toward undergraduates who live off-campus. Almost everyone who spoke dealt with safety and security issues, ranging from Escort to security at fraternity houses. Rodin said she was aware that off-campus students have "different sets of issues and different sets of problems." "I very, very much welcome the free and candid conversation about the issues you think you're confronting as Penn students," she added. Rodin spent the majority of the meeting listening to students and occasionally responding with the administration's hopes to improve the situations discussed. University Police Commissioner John Kuprevich and Off-Campus Living Director Eleni Zatz Litt also spoke at the meeting. Fried mentioned problems with Escort Service, noting that she feels "very uncomfortable" walking alone because Escort does not go further into Center City than 20th Street. "I would like to make a plea that you somehow extend Escort past 20th," she said, adding that there was no "acceptable" off-campus residence within Escort's boundaries when she searched for a place to live. Rodin said the administration is developing a master security plan to look at "an overarching definition of all the issues related to security for students on or off campus." "I think it is a very complicated issue," she said. "What the best set of strategies to make everyone feel as safe as possible is, I am not really sure at the moment." Rodin added that the University is unable to patrol all of Philadelphia and therefore has to construct boundaries. College senior Toby Tucker, vice president of the Panhellenic Council, told Rodin that the council has developed both short-term and long-term proposals on the issues of safety and security. Tucker mentioned several specific issues of concern, including the waiting time for Escort and the safety of transit stops themselves. She added that night classes are not always near a transit stop and students often walk home rather than wait for a lengthy period of time. "Walking Escort can get you from anywhere on-campus to a transit stop and from a transit stop to anywhere on campus," Kuprevich said in response, noting that security guards patrol each transit stop location as well. But Panhellenic Council President Suzanne Rosenberg, a College senior, said she sensed "a great degree of apathy" from Escort drivers and the security personnel at the transit stops. Tucker also said the police presence on and around campus should be greater. College junior Corrie Rosen, who lives in the Chi Omega house at 39th and Spruce streets, told Rodin that Escort often refuses to drop her off at her home, instead leaving her at the High Rises. "They tell me I'm too close to campus so they drop me off at the High Rises," she said. "I live close to them but it's still not my home." Rosen added that she has not received appropriate responses on these issues, even when she has contacted the police department. "I am concerned," she said. "I've been dealing with this since September and nothing has changed." As she ended the session, Rodin said she appreciated everyone's comments. "We are listening," she said. "We hear you and we know what you're feeling." After the meeting, Rosen said she was skeptical about whether the meeting will lead to action. "I'd like to see what will happen now," she said. "In the past, it has stopped with something like this. "It's so frustrating because everything they said, I've tried," Rosen added.