Few major crimes hit U. campus

But a Nov. assault in a University building shocked the campus and prompted new security measures. Newtown High School '97 Newtown, Ct. Despite another year of falling crime on and around campus, the University was shaken last fall by the early morning assault of a female University sophomore in a basement bathroom in the center of campus. In the only major criminal incident on campus this year, the student was assaulted by a knife-wielding man in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall, the main Wharton School building, last November 8, prompting an outcry among students about campus security. Within days, police arrested a 16-year-old West Philadelphia juvenile in connection with the attack. He has been charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, robbery and attempted rape. Although she sustained several cuts, bruises and knife wounds, the victim did not sustain any major physical injuries. Over the past few years, the number of robberies has dropped by more than a third, while thefts are also down significantly. Since 1996, officials from Penn's Division of Public Safety have increased the number of police officers and detectives and moved the department into a new, state-of-the-art headquarters. Since he arrived in September 1995, Vice President for Public Safety Tom Seamon has also overhauled his management team, increased lighting on and around campus, added more emergency blue-light phones and increased campus escort services. Police officials say the more visible police presence on campus has made Penn less of a target for criminals than it has been in the past. "I think that people understand that the University is doing as much as possible," Seamon said last November. "There always can be a horrible incident.? What we try to do is minimize that possibility as much as possible." Despite the declining crime rate, the November assault made some students feel unsafe in University buildings. The incident was the first time in recent memory that a student was assaulted inside a secured University building. Police say the victim was working in Steinberg-Dietrich -- a common late-night studying area that is open 24 hours a day -- and went to use the bathroom at about 2:45 a.m. When the victim was leaving the stall, a man holding a knife faced her. Fearing that he would rape her, the victim tried to fight her attacker, who allegedly banged the student's head repeatedly against the wall and floor and attempted to slit her throat. She sustained multiple cuts and bruises but managed to hit two panic alarms and escape from her assailant. Police believe the attacker gained entry to the building through a side entrance, normally locked at night, that was perhaps propped open by a student so he or she could return later. The front entrance is guarded at night by a security guard. In the days following the assault, friends of the victim and a widely circulated e-mail message said that the first panic alarm she pressed did not work and accused the University Police of failing to respond in a timely manner. But police officials said all the panic alarms in the building were working at the time of the assault and disputed claims that it took several minutes for a security guard to respond. Later, a witness came forward saying that he heard two distinct alarms sound and that a security guard responded very quickly. Partly as a result of the attack and a resolution by the Undergraduate Assembly calling for increased late-night safety measures, Public Safety started requiring students to wear their PennCards in several University buildings after 10 p.m. In April, a 20-year-old Penn junior was raped in her Center City apartment by a man who entered her first-floor apartment through an unlocked window at about 4:40 a.m. while she was sleeping. Philadelphia Police made an arrest in the case two days after the incident. At first, police believed the suspect might be tied to the May 1997 murder of Wharton doctoral student Shannon Schieber, but DNA samples taken from both crime scenes did not match. Schieber was strangled to death in the same downtown neighborhood. Her killer has not been apprehended. And on April 13, a female Wharton graduate student reported that she was attacked by a man in the lobby of Vance Hall at about 5:30 a.m. The 33-year-old student was able to fight off her attacker, sustaining a sprained right arm and bruises, before he fled the scene. The victim did not require hospitalization.

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