Penn Named Best University … Security

The University of Pennsylvania’s public safety division ranked first in its sector in the annual Security 500 rankings from Security magazine. It was the eighth consecutive year Penn topped the rankings for universities.

Penn has beefed up its security since the campus got a reputation for crime in the 1980s and early 1990s. Maureen Rush, Vice President for Public Safety and Superintendent of the Penn Police Department, joined Penn in 1994. Per The Daily Pennsylvanian, security contractors at Penn have doubled under Rush. Penn now has almost 800 people working in public safety in the 2.5-mile zone.

Security magazine’s rankings use data gathered from public records and “participating enterprises.” For the trade magazine’s subscribers, the rankings are designed to “create a reliable database to measure your organization versus others and create a benchmarking program among security organizations.”

Drexel ranked 4th in the university division. The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, which Rush also heads up public safety for, ranked ninth among hospitals.

[Security Magazine | Daily Pennsylvanian]