Are initiatives worth it?

The first step to solving a problem is admitting that one exists in the first place. The next step is to do something about it. With Penn's new commitment to increase its security budget by $5 million, the University has done both. The administration acknowledged that crime is a persistent problem and made a major investment to fix it.

Penn's initiatives to improve campus lighting, beef up its security force and enhance security technology on campus represent reasonable -- and likely important -- steps in combating an increase in crime in the city as well as the outbreak of concern generated by the recent shootings on campus.

But the University must provide more details.

For Penn -- a school high in national rankings about to start a major fundraising campaign -- public relations is admittedly vital. That said, a $5 million expenditure is not chump change. Will this $5 million result in less performing arts rehearsal space or fewer scholarships down the road?

Students who pay more than $30,000 a year to attend the University deserve to know where this money is coming from, so they can judge for themselves whether the extra investment in security is worth the sticker price.

With so much money already being spent, the University community also deserves to see fast and effective implementation of the new security measures.

Will any decrease in crime be worth $5 million? This newspaper hopes it will be, but to properly judge the value of these new measures, the University must be forthcoming about the initiatives' costs.

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