<p>When I went to Columbia, I really liked that aspect of the university – it made me feel very safe. I’ve also visited Penn, but I honestly don’t remember the campus too well.</p>
<p>In general, is security an issue for Penn or Columbia?</p>
<p>There are no gates that close off the university, but at most buildings you need a PennCard to get past the entrance.</p>
<p>A college should be open to the public. Most colleges are open to the public and provide a lot of benefits to people in the neighborhood. Non-students must pay fee to receive service but this does not mean they cannot walk on the colleges.</p>
<p>There is security everywhere, especially during the night.</p>
<p>The Penn campus is much more open to and integrated with the surrounding city than Columbia’s is. Individual buildings are locked, of course, and some areas like the Quads are closed off at night, but in general, like Harvard, Yale, the University of Chicago, NYU, UCLA, and most other urban campuses, it’s part of the city, not apart from it. Columbia is an exception (and so is Fordham, also in NYC).</p>
<p>Of course, all of those colleges have extensive university police forces that maintain campus security.</p>
<p>To add on, Penn prides itself in adding value to the community – students often take classes that require active involvement in the community; there is an entire department (Urban Studies) dedicated to researching cities and urban behavior, and Philadelphia is often the central learning point. In addition, the Penn library is open to the public during business hours, serving as a resource for anyone who wishes to use it.</p>
<p>Official Penn or Penn-related businesses are interspersed among national franchises and local businesses along Chestnut, Walnut, Spruce, 34th and 40th Streets, as well as west/southwest of campus.</p>
<p>Almost half of Penn upperclassmen live off campus, between 40th and 43rd Streets, Chestnut Street to Baltimore Avenue, and though most of the people living in this are are Penn students, there are plenty of local residents too.</p>
<p>To counter the inevitable crime from an urban setting, Penn has a police force. This police force is not a bunch of rent-a-cops; rather, it makes up the seventh largest police force in Pennsylvania (behind Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Erie, Allentown and Reading) and is comprised of highly trained, highly paid police officers. These police officers meet the same standards as municipal police forces, and they have the right to carry firearms as well as arrest people anywhere in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Penn also provides a security team, usually riding bicycles and wearing bright yellow jackets. After nightfall, it is likely that if you are standing at any point in the Penn Patrol Zone (bounded by Market Street in the north, 43rd Street in the west, Baltimore/University Ave / Civic Center Blvd in the south and the Schuylkill River in the east), you will be able to see at least one security guard.</p>
<p>Penn’s security’s paramount concern is the safety of students, and in four years I have never had a friend become the victim of a crime other than petty theft (which is a problem everywhere).</p>
<p>Safety is a legitimate concern, but Penn does its best to address that concern :)</p>
<p>I recently visited both Columbia and Penn.</p>
<p>Penn has no security gate.</p>
<p>Yeah man. Penn has no security gate but those guys in bright yellow security shirt are everywhere. Everywhere, I repeat.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that Columbia’s campus is only 32 acres, while Penn’s campus is about 300 acres. It would be neither practical nor desirable to close off Penn’s entire campus from the city.</p>