W.C. Mepham High School '98
North Bellmore, N.Y.
Despite a number of criminal incidents on and around campus during the past year, students at Penn feel safer in West Philadelphia now than at any other time in recent history, according to a survey recently conducted by The Daily Pennsylvanian.
The survey of 316 undergraduates revealed that 74 percent of students feel at least somewhat safe on campus, a 5 percent increase over the results of a survey taken in 1998. The latest telephone poll was conducted over a one-week period in April and had a margin of error of 5.6 percent.
Officials from the University Police -- a private police force that patrols the campus area and is the largest private law enforcement department in the state -- say the increase in student confidence is a direct result of the changing crime rate.
Since a high-profile 1996 crime wave, crime on and around the Penn campus has markedly decreased as the campus police have taken on new powers and begun new security initiatives.
"Crime from 1998 through 1999 was down over 33 percent, so in some ways maybe the number [of students feeling safer] should be a little higher," University Police Chief Maureen Rush said.
Few major crimes hit Penn's campus this year, and the most tragic events of the year were accidents that did not involve criminal activity.
In October, two individuals -- 18-year-old Wharton freshman Michael Yang and 70-year-old West Philadelphia resident Benjamin Tencer -- were killed in separate incidents just weeks apart as the bicycles they were riding were struck by automobiles at the intersections of 33rd and Spruce streets and 34th and Walnut streets, respectively.
A number of notable crimes also struck the area around Penn's campus, including an armed robbery in November at the Mad 4 Mex restaurant in the 3401 Walnut Street complex and a burglary the same day at Eisenlohr Hall, the official on-campus residence of University President Judith Rodin.
And there were several armed robberies last fall, including one outside of the Inn at Penn and another just steps off of Locust Walk on 36th Street.
Several members of the Penn community were the recipients of threatening pieces of mail.
Last November, Vice Provost for Research Ralph Amado received a meat cleaver in an anonymous package just hours before a knife was delivered in similar fashion to the Law School. Police investigators have not yet identified suspects in either incident.
Members of the Queer Student Alliance came face to face with another kind of threat in March, when an offensive e-mail was sent to the group's listserv. The hate mail was sent at the same time as the annual Bisexual Gay Lesbian Awareness Days were kicking off.
And in April, law enforcement agencies from throughout the Philadelphia area converged on campus in response to a threatening letter and substance sent to the Penn Hillel Foundation.
The letter's anonymous author claimed that a white powdery substance in the envelope was the lethal biochemical substance anthrax, though FBI laboratory testing later determined it was most likely talcum powder or corn starch. That investigation is ongoing.
