UA 'targets' safety awareness with student sticker campaign

The Undergraduate Assembly was out in full force yesterday promoting its safety awareness campaign in response to the November 8 early-morning attack on a female student in a Steinberg-Dietrich Hall bathroom. UA members passed out about 4,000 red-and-white bull's eye stickers that asked, "Am I a Target?" Students on Locust Walk were asked to wear the sticker to demonstrate their concern for campus security. "The message here is that everyone in the Penn community needs to be concerned about safety," said UA Chairperson Bill Conway, a Wharton junior. "It is really about awareness." Sixteen-year-old Steven Woodson of West Philadelphia has been charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault in connection with the knife attack. He remains in police custody, awaiting his preliminary hearing on Monday. "Hopefully, the administration will not see [the stickers] as an attack on them," UA Vice Chairperson and College sophomore Mike Bassik said. "Rather, it will draw attention to security measures that are employed." Public awareness stretched beyond Penn's campus. News crews from several local television-network affiliates as well as reporters from The Philadelphia Inquirer came to cover the "Am I a Target?" campaign and to interview UA members. Many students were emphatic that the issue of safety must be addressed by the University. Wearing a "target" sticker, College senior Angela Adams said, "I don't like that the University waits until something bad happens before they do something." University officials have been meeting with student leaders to discuss possible security measures in response to last week's attack. Police say the assailant likely entered the building through a door that had been propped open by a student. However, some students were confused about the purpose of the campaign. Nursing sophomore Jennifer Stevens said a student handing out the stickers couldn't tell her the meaning of the campaign. College sophomore Sunshine Archambault recalled, "I was walking right before class and some guy asked, 'Are you targeted?' I said, 'No,' and he said, 'You have to wear it.' So I wore it for an hour." Bassik added that the campaign was also an effort to "get students to support the UA resolutions" this week that supported several specific security improvements. Daily Pennsylvanian staff writer Erin Johnson contributed to this article.