Opinion Board | Making Van Pelt safe

Crime in West Philly may be old news, but you know it's bad when it reaches the hallowed halls of Van Pelt.

Indeed, ten cases of theft have been reported to Penn Police since mid-September and many more have certainly gone unreported. According to the Division of Public Safety, 43 percent of total thefts since July have been the result of leaving possessions unattended.

On the one hand, this is stupid.

We have little sympathy for Penn students who inexplicably leave their wallets and cell phones unattended.

On the other hand, it would be nice if students could enjoy the library's resources without having to be on the lookout for petty thieves.

Indeed, shutting down your laptop and packing up your belongings every time you want to take a study break present a significant inconvenience, which students should be able to avoid.

Some responsibility has to fall on the part of the University to make Van Pelt a safe place to study. But what to do?

Installing surveillance cameras in the library would deter crime, for example, but it would also be prohibitively expensive (not to mention impinge on student privacy).

Or Penn could hire extra security guards to roam Rosengarten, but do we really want to feel like we're studying in a police state?

A better idea would be to rent out laptop locks. Van Pelt could invest in a large number of locks and give them out to students who request them in exchange for students' PennCards. This would be cheap, easy and effective.

Locks would allow students to feel comfortable leaving their laptops unattended, while allowing the library to avoid an Orwellian nightmare.

Criminals would look elsewhere for business and Van Pelt would once again be a safe place to study.

Penn may not be able to do much (at least in the immediate future) about West Philly crime, but it can at least keep it out of our library.

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