TSG holds town hall with new VP of public safety

Temple Student Government held their first in-person town hall on Monday with Jennifer Griffin, the newly-appointed vice president for public safety, to discuss various campus safety initiatives.   

The town hall, held in the Student Center, was meant to serve as a forum for Student Body President Gianni Quattrocchi and Griffin to answer student questions, discuss campus safety, upcoming events and to debut Griffin’s role, which was adapted from former Campus Safety Services director Charles Leone.  

Griffin also talked about the university’s programs for landlords including the off-campus residence safety program, which verifies landlords as a safe location to rent if they meet certain safety standards like lighting, cameras and locks. Landlords can also apply for a grant program where Temple will give them $2,500 to provide security improvements. 

“We’re asking landlords to become good partners with us and if they have all of these kinds of safety checklists, the university will then have a list to say ‘Okay, these are the five locations’ or ‘These are however many locations that have good lighting, they have locks, they have cameras, they follow best practices for our students, we feel confident they are providing good residence for you,’” Griffin said.  

Griffin also sits on the university’s Task Force on Violence Reduction, comprised of students, parents, faculty and staff, which will be releasing recommendations to better engage the Temple community.  

“There’s a whole list of recommendations that they’ll be coming back with to talk about ways that public safety can do better and then also how we can engage students, faculty and staff,” Griffin said. 

Griffin will also hold further discussions with parents about campus safety. On April 6 and April 29 parents met with university officials to discuss campus safety updates, including increased police patrols and the new RAVE guardian app.  

Additionally, 21CP Solutions, a group of professionals evaluating campus safety, will be surveying Temple students about their view on campus safety.  

“We need you to be a partner with us, we need to hear your input, we need to know how you’re feeling on campus because we see it from a totally different perspective,” Griffin said.