U. employee assaulted at Penn Tower

University Police believe the woman was attacked by the same person who burglarized the building yesterday. Police found a 54-year-old woman semi-conscious and bleeding heavily from her head while sitting at her desk in her sixth-floor Penn Tower Hotel office yesterday morning, police said. According to University Police Det. Commander Tom King, police believe the assault is linked to two other burglaries and an attempted burglary on other floors of the building between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. yesterday. The woman suffered multiple lacerations to her face and injuries to her eye socket and jaw, police said. As of late last night, she remained in fair but stable condition at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The incident raises questions about the level of security in the building, located on the 300 block of South 34th Street. Break-ins have been a frequent problem in its parking garage. Police are not sure how the intruder entered the hotel, although it is possible that the individual came through the service elevator or the fire escape, King said. The Penn Tower Hotel, which is operated by the Penn Health System, employs 12 security guards who report to the hotel's general manager and the Health System's security director, according to Health System spokesperson Rebecca Harmon. "[The force is] quite adequate and comparable to that of any hotel this size," Harmon said. The incident began early yesterday morning when the woman -- whose name was not released -- called her husband, also a University employee, to tell him that an intruder assaulted her in her Cancer Center office, police said. Police officers arrived at about 6:15 a.m., and a Philadelphia Fire Department vehicle transported the victim across the street to HUP, where she was admitted in stable but serious condition. By yesterday afternoon her condition had improved from serious to fair. Two other burglaries were reported yesterday morning on the fourth and eighth floors, according to police. On the seventh floor, a piece of locking equipment showed evidence of tampering, King said. Although police are not sure if anything was taken, offices on the two burglarized floors were ransacked, King said. According to a HUP employee close to the situation, the woman's husband -- who initially failed to recognize her voice because she sounded "disoriented" -- called 911 at 5:42 a.m. and promptly left his office in the Franklin Building Annex at 36th and Sansom streets to go to the Penn Tower Hotel. It is unclear when either Penn Tower Hotel security guards or police officers arrived on the scene. The victim's husband told the employee, who requested anonymity, that no one was at his wife's office by the time he arrived, the employee said. University Police logged their official response at 6:11 a.m., 29 minutes after the source said the victim's husband called 911. The HUP employee, who said he was at the scene "very early in the morning," stressed that he was concerned that a "lack of diligence and responsiveness" prevented the woman from receiving timely medical attention. "There were more suits than there were doctors," he said, adding that he thought too many people were "scurrying around to find answers" before admitting the woman to HUP. The couple have worked for the University for many years and "deserve better," the source said. King refused to elaborate on the medical response to the incident.