Nine years ago, then-College senior James McCormack was shot at 42nd and Pine streets. He had left his girlfriend's apartment to go grocery shopping at 9:30 p.m. when a man demanded his car keys. When McCormack refused, the man shot him in the stomach and fled.
This scene took place in November 1997, and to those who lived in Philadelphia at the time, the crime represented the constant threat of violence near Penn's campus.
"You go two blocks over [from campus] and there's crack houses," McCormack said of the area as it appeared in 1997.
Sunday morning's shooting at 38th and Sansom streets marks the first time a Penn student has been shot on campus since that fall night in the late 1990s. And although the two incidences do share some key characteristics, few seem to see Engineering sophomore Mari Oishi's injury as part of a larger pattern. McCormack's, however, came at a time of high tension.
In 1996, one year before McCormack's injury, crime across Philadelphia was at an all-time high. Penn Police reported well over 100 robberies on and around campus that year.
Over the past decade, students and administrators say campus safety has improved dramatically.
Gregory College House Dean Christopher Donovan -- who graduated from Penn in 1992 -- said, "The campus is clearly much safer than when I was an undergraduate here."
"We didn't have Fresh Grocer or the Bridge or Marathon" Grill, he added. "We were much more fearful of 38th, 39th and 40th streets" than students are today.
Almost a decade later, crime is down by over 50 percent. The Penn Police reported 65 robberies in University City in 2004.
Students today say they see Oishi's shooting as an anomaly.
It was a "freak occurrence," said College sophomore Scott Kahn, who witnessed Oishi's shooting from his home. The event, he said, seemed to be a random act of violence.
Philadelphia Police are searching for suspects in Sunday's incident.
The Rev. Charles Howard, who attended Penn from 1996 to 2000 and now works in the Office of the Chaplain, said he has seen "tremendous progress in regard to safety on campus."
During his years as a student, Howard said, he felt like crime was a larger problem than it is today.
Oishi's shooting "doesn't make me feel unsafe," College freshman Catherine Safaya added.
But McCormack thinks that the campus area is still as dangerous as it was 10 years ago.
"The bottom line is nothing has really changed," said McCormack, who grew up in Philadelphia and currently lives in the suburb of Quakertown. University administrators "don't want to deal with the underlying problem."
Division of Public Safety officials declined to respond to McCormack's statement.
A man was arrested in McCormick's case but was acquitted in 1998.
"I'd almost bet 10 grand [that] every time there's a serious crime on campus, Penn's response is, 'Penn has done this, we've increased security,'" McCormack said.
The Division of Public Safety has indeed stepped up the number of officers on campus, but students don't seem convinced that the efforts will have an effect.
College sophomore Sam Ashuraey said he is not sure whether the recently increased University Police Department patrols are effective or just meant to "give the impression of safety."
