GUEST COLUMNIST: En route to campus redevelopment

The to-do is that these multi-million dollar projects have the potential to dramatically revitalize Penn, reshaping its look and feel and turning it into a destination point rather than a one-stop shop for either classes, research or a job. But in order to bring a real transformation, the University's transportation policy must become part of Penn's redevelopment equation. While some students, faculty and administrators discount the importance of transportation, the nature of the transportation system in and around campus directly impacts the economic well-being of the entire West Philadelphia region. Automobile escort has consistently been expanded since its conception in the early 1980s, while the use of Walking Escort off campus has been curtailed. The effect of this policy was the emptying of campus sidewalks after dusk as thousands of students began to pile into Escort vans on a daily basis. Continued efforts to expand Escort were not prompted out of an administrative tendency toward masochism. Believe it or not, such expansion of the University's protective transportation services have historically been taken in response to student pressure, many times incited by incidents of crime around campus. In 1965, Penn took its first step into transit services after women leaders protested the need for a secure means of moving to and from campus. Since the precedent set by the Penn women of the 1960s, the University's transportation policies have been characterized largely by reactive measures to allay prospective and current student and parental concerns. In the late 1980s, the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly and the Undergraduate Assembly became the administration's next foes in the war to expand Penn's transportation services. The graduate students called for increased convenience while the undergraduates wanted more protection. Both demanded increased transit services and in doing so, both tacitly called for diminished foot traffic on the streets. As the presence of crime on campus became more apparent during the early 1990s, the administration felt compelled to take a knee-jerk response by drastically expanding not only the number of Escort vehicles, but their reach as well. For the first time ever, the University would provide services east of the river into Center City -- representing an admission by administrators that West Philadelphia could not adequately cater to the needs of graduate students. As the University is being reshaped with new retail development, the campus community must work together to uncover ways in which it can once again become a destination point for students, faculty and administrators. While the pattern of the past could easily continue, the University now has an opportunity to break free from its confining and predictable approach to transportation. Admittedly, Escort's taxi-style convenience is somewhat of an entrenched tradition at Penn. Within the past year, however, Escort's ridership has dropped by over 30,000. This drop is attributed to the renewed sense in safety returning to campus. Penn must capitalize on this feeling fast. Active engagement by the campus community in long-term transportation planning will facilitate, rather than weaken, the University's redevelopment goals. Escort Services could work in concert with the University's redevelopment scheme by gradually shifting from riding to walking services around more areas of campus, and by creating pick-up and drop-off hubs at strategic locations on campus. Further, Penn's transportation division must not overlook the importance of SEPTA as a means of attracting more people to campus and relieving the burden placed upon Escort Services. If Penn is to ever again become a vibrant place with students, faculty and administrators lining the streets, rather than the seats of Escort vans, it must rethink its transportation policy. Transportation can no longer be a knee-jerk response when incidents of crime arise, but must instead become a means of facilitating movement toward a destination -- West Philadelphia.

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