Fallout from the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington hit campus yesterday as the University effectively shut down for the afternoon.
All afternoon classes were canceled, and all non-essential staff were sent home. University Police called in all off-duty officers to provide extra security on campus.
In addition, the University barred all vehicles from driving on Locust Walk and placed the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania on alert for overflow patients from New York.
The University plans to resume its normal schedule today, with all classes meeting as planned.
"There will be some disruption, but a sense of trying to resume normalcy, we think, is very important," University President Judith Rodin said yesterday. "We will try to have as normal a day as possible, recognizing that it is anything but."
Rodin said that the administration began work on maintaining lines of communication with students and faculty as soon as the news broke yesterday.
"Obviously, the first set of reactions that we had was disbelief that there could be this kind of tragedy," Rodin said. "We know that there will be many people on this campus whose lives will be touched by what has happened."
A memorial service for the victims of the attacks will be held today at 4 p.m. in Irvine Auditorium, and will be open to all students, faculty and staff as well as simulcast to other locations around campus.
In addition, Penn faculty experts on terrorism will host a discussion tomorrow afternoon. The time and location of the event have not yet been determined.
A team of administrators, including Rodin and Provost Robert Barchi, met at 9:15 a.m. yesterday to discuss what measures would be taken to ensure the safety of students and faculty on campus.
By 10:30 a.m., the group had drafted a plan to secure campus and increase resources available to students and faculty.
Houston Hall has been turned into a 24-hour information and counseling center, with extra phones and computers to allow students to get in touch with friends and relatives.
And Counseling and Psychological Services set up an e-mail chain through the college houses alerting students of counseling services available through their dorms.
Houston Hall "is a focal point on campus where you can come if you feel you need help, if you feel that you want someone to talk to, or if you feel that you need additional information," Barchi said.
Houston Hall will remain open 24 hours a day for the remainder of the week, offering counseling services around the clock.
Executive Vice President John Fry said that the University increased security on all access roads to the campus and searched the mailrooms for suspicious packages.
"The immediate reaction was, `How do we secure this campus in the event that something might happen,'" Fry said. "Anything that would be relatively suspicious, we jumped all over."
Fry said that canceling classes yesterday was a decision made in the best interest of the safety and welfare of Penn students.
And Rodin added that she believes the best way for students to cope with tragedies like this is to be with their friends, outside the classroom setting.
And while other area schools, including Temple University, did not cancel classes, Rodin said that the makeup of Penn's student body puts the University in a different situation than other Philadelphia schools.
"Penn has a very large and diverse international community," Rodin said. "If, as events unfold, there really are concerns about our responses to one another, we want to deal with the fact of our diversity in a positive way and in a proactive way."
Rodin also cited Penn's reputation as being one of the top schools in the nation as reason enough to believe that the University could be a target for terrorist actions.
"Certainly, we are seeing that the targets were quite systematic symbols," she said. "Clearly, we feel that we ought to take a higher level of attention, perhaps, than other institutions in Philadelphia might wish to."
Although the University had the potential to contribute its resources to the City of Philadelphia at large, Rodin said the initial focus yesterday was on the safety of Penn students and faculty.
"We really do think that a need to feel absolutely confident that the campus is secure, both physically and emotionally, is really our first priority," Rodin said. "HUP, because it is an emergency trauma center, clearly is in outreach, but the rest of us have not been."
