University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann has pledged $5 million toward an immediate increase in campus security, according to an article published Monday in The Daily Pennsylvanian, the independent student newspaper at Penn.
This will raise the budget of the Division of Public Safety at Penn from $23 million to $28 million. The increase will be invested in more police, security guards, lighting, security cameras, and blue-light phones.
Craig Carnaroli, executive vice president of Penn, said that these initiatives are not in response to the recent acts of violence suffered by Penn students.
Increased incidents of campus crime in the past month elicited security concerns from students and community members. The incident that received the most attention involved a sophomore student getting shot and wounded.
Carnaroli said that the $5 million will come from re-budgeting existing funds.