As Temple’s next president, John Fry says safety will be ‘an early priority’

John A. Fry recalled a conversation he had decades ago when he was executive vice president at the University of Pennsylvania and was speaking with Lee Stetson, the former dean of undergraduate admissions there.

“He said, ‘John, this is all about safety,’” Fry recalled in an exclusive interview Monday. “‘A safe and clean campus is what I need to do my job.’ He was very worried about the perception that Penn was not safe.”

Back then, in the mid-1990s, Penn was dealing with concerns about crime in its West Philadelphia neighborhood, and Fry was the chief architect of a plan to revitalize the area. He helped bring in a movie theater and grocery, create the public Penn Alexander School, and launch the University City District, fostering relationships among colleges, retailers and residents.

» READ MORE: More than a year after a Temple police officer was shot and killed, where does the university’s safety stand?

Now, Fry, who was hired as Temple University’s next president Wednesday morning by a unanimous vote of university trustees, will face a similar challenge in its North Philadelphia neighborhood. Though Temple has launched efforts to improve safety around its campus in the last couple of years under Jennifer Griffin, a former Delaware State Police captain, Temple has lost 24% of its enrollment since 2017. And university officials have acknowledged that some of that has been due to perceptions about safety.

“That will clearly be an early priority of mine,” said Fry, who has been president of Drexel University in West Philadelphia for 14 years.

Fry said he has read the Temple safety audit report by former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, whose company was hired by the university after the shooting death of student Samuel Collington outside his off-campus residence in November 2021. Concerns mounted again when Temple police officer Christopher Fitzgerald was shot to death while on duty in February 2023.

Temple has already implemented dozens of safety recommendations that came from the audit by 21CP Solutions, the company started by Ramsey. The university has added shuttle stops; extended walking escort service to 24 hours a day; updated more than 400 security cameras; added equipment including handguns, long guns and radios; expanded bike and foot patrols; and changed officers’ shifts to 12-hour stints to ensure coverage and allow for alternating three-day weekends.

This spring, the university reported that aggravated assaults, robbery and auto theft in and around campus were down significantly in 2023 from 2022. Recruitment of officers, though, has remained challenging.

» READ MORE: Temple hopes 29% increase in deposits from prospective first-years signals more enrollment

University officials also reported last month that the enrollment picture may be improving, citing a 29% increase in deposits from first-year admitted students over the same time last year.

Fry said he will focus on continuing to execute the Ramsey plan, making sure all the right resources are in place and that police and security are getting the investments they need to best do their jobs. He said he wants to ride with the Temple police and get to know them and the Temple neighborhood.

Drexel, he said, has benefited from an extensive safety network in West Philadelphia that includes Penn police, Amtrak and SEPTA police, city police and the University City District.

“Everyone is highly coordinated,” he said. “Temple doesn’t have the benefit of that kind of security network. So I think Temple’s job is a very hard job.”

But he said he would like to work on building that network.

“I just don’t know who the other partners would be,” he said, until “I get on the ground and start understanding what’s going on.”