On Friday, April 27, 2012, Senator Bob Casey, Jr. visited the University of Pennsylvania’s Women’s Center to speak about the 2012 Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act.  Vice President for Public Safety Maureen S. Rush convened the session, welcoming Senator Casey and invited guests. Senator Casey discussed his efforts regarding the reauthorization and highlighting the impact this legislation has throughout Pennsylvania and across the Country.

The Division of Public Safety hosted “Take Our Daughters & Sons To Work Day” on Thursday, April 26, 2012.  Vice President for Public Safety Maureen S. Rush began the event by swearing in the children as Police Officers for the day.   The kids, and their parents, really enjoyed the activities such as: participating in self-defense training; learning about bike safety, wearing a helmet, and crime scene investigation techniques; how to properly extinguish a fire using the hose from Philadelphia Fire Departments’ Engine 5;  and controlling PennComm’s CCTV cameras to find hidden messages around campus.

The Division of Public Safety held their biannual Commendation Ceremony on Thursday, April 19, 2012.  Vice President for Public Safety Maureen S. Rush says the commendations are DPS’s way of congratulating and expressing the department’s gratitude “to those who risk their lives to keep us safe on a daily basis, as well as to show our appreciation to first responders, both law enforcement, as well as our security partners from AlliedBarton, PennComm Tele-communicators, members of the Philadelphia Fire Department, and concerned citizens.”

During the month of April, Penn Admissions hosts Penn Preview Days.  This event is designed to acquaint the perspective Penn parents and their families with our dynamic and exciting campus.  Students and faculty of the Penn community provided an in-depth view of the wide array of educational and extracurricular opportunities at Penn.  One of the events that is important for the parents of students accepted to the class of 2016 to attend is the Panel discussion titled, “Becoming a Penn Parent” focused on educating the parents to the basics of what to expect at Penn. Vice President Maureen Rush was one of the selected panelists at this event held in Irvine Auditorium.  Following this session the Vice President joined the parents on College Green in order to afford them the opportunity to ask questions directly related to Public Safety and gather collateral on various topics such as the UPennAlert, PennGuardian, and theft awareness.