<p>My daughter has just been assigned to White Hall which is not directly on campus. Can anyone give me any information about this dorm? I'm very concerned.</p>
<p>don't be too worried. It is on the edge of campus but still on campus. My daughter ended up not going to Temple but she would have lived in White - with Architecture/engineering students. The dorm seems like one of the nicer ones for freshmen, it is all suites.
Many parents are concerned about the safety issue - as they and/or their kids have never experience city living and Philly can be somewhat scary.
Temple is a safe campus. I think they have something like the 5th largest police department in Pennsylvania.<br>
A friend of my d's just finished his freshman year and he was just telling me that he sees Temple police everywhere. He felt very safe.</p>
<p>Congratulations on your daughter being admitted to Temple. It’s a great school (and my undergraduate and graduate alma mater). My way-out-of-state daughter will be entering Temple this fall, too, and she will also be living in the dorms, although she does not yet know which dorm.</p>
<p>I agree with JustAMomOf4 that Temple is a safe campus. In fact, I think that Temple is much safer than the typical (and ostensibly "safe") cow town/gown town college where drinking, drugs, and debauchery dominate the physically isolated, emotionally immature, and terminally bored resident students’ leisure time. Temple’s police department is top-notch, and building/campus security personnel are excellent, too. Temple students themselves contribute greatly to campus safety by already knowing (or quickly learning) how to keep themselves safe. Temple students are quiet, mature, and businesslike; they have maximum street smarts and minimum "attitude," and they know that self-confidence, common sense, and courtesy are key to personal safety when out and about on campus and elsewhere in Philadelphia.</p>
<p>White Hall didn’t exist when I was at Temple; at that time, the 2100 block of North Broad was almost entirely commercial. I lived in Johnson-Hardwick (located at Broad & Diamond, kitty-corner from White) during my last two years as an undergrad. My dorm room and floor study lounge provided a bird’s-eye view of the Broad & Diamond intersection, which was well-traveled by vehicles and pedestrians during the day, and was generally quiet at night. I never had a problem walking around that area--or any other area--of the campus, day or night. One close friend and dormmate regularly rode SEPTA (C bus or subway from the Susquehanna-Dauphin station) between the 2100 block of North Broad and Temple’s Allied Health Complex, and never had a problem. Several of my close friends and dormmates were active members of Temple’s Newman Center (located on Broad across from White Hall), and they never had problems walking to and from church. Johnson-Hardwick and Peabody residents often walked (in pairs or groups) to the nearby McDonalds (located next to the Newman Center) for late night take-out; I never had a problem doing so, and I never heard of anyone else having a problem, either. My best friend and dorm roommate, an education major, student-taught at Duckrey Elementary (located at 15th & Diamond, around the corner from White), and never had a problem at the school or while walking to and from the school. (My roommate found Duckrey students to be exceptionally friendly and well-behaved.)</p>
<p>As a commuting grad student, I walked the 2100 block of North Broad (and ate breakfast at McDonalds) regularly, and I never had a problem. My graduate classes and my campus job were in Annenberg, on Temple’s north side. I rode the subway to the Susquehanna-Dauphin station (located just steps away from White) during the day. When I left campus at night, however, I usually walked the few extra blocks down to the Columbia station (now renamed the Cecil B. Moore-Temple station), which was the busier--and therefore, the safer--of the two stations (although I never had a problem at Susquehanna-Dauphin, even at night). I've heard that SEPTA has substantially renovated the CBM-Temple station, but has also installed digital security cameras at Susquehanna-Dauphin, making that station somewhat safer than it used to be. White Hall’s presence has undoubtedly increased passenger use of Susquehanna-Dauphin, which should also add to safety at that station. (Bear in mind, however, that Susquehanna-Dauphin is still a "bare bones" station which doesn’t sell tokens, so a previously-purchased token, exact change, or a SEPTA pass is a must.) If your daughter is traveling to or from Center City or elsewhere alone during the day, the subway is reasonably safe; if she’s traveling alone very late at night, she’s reasonably safer riding the C bus. If she travels with companions, the subway is reasonably safe at any time. (I say "reasonably safe," because there’s no such thing as "perfectly safe" when walking public streets and/or riding public transit.)</p>
<p>I think it is safe for your daughter to walk to and from White Hall and to walk around Temple's campus during the day and at night; however, when traveling around campus very late at night, she should use the OwLoop shuttle (which didn’t exist when I was at Temple) which has a stop in front of Johnson-Hardwick. I have one campus walking recommendation: Diamond Street east of Broad (which passes beside Hardwick and behind Annenberg) is isolated and not well-traveled by pedestrians, so when your daughter walks from White to the campus proper, I suggest that she cross to the SE corner of Broad & Diamond (by Johnson-Hardwick), and enter campus by the walkway running between Johnson and Peabody, or at Broad & Norris, or at Broad & Berks. She should exit campus by one of those routes. </p>
<p>One of the best ways you and your daughter can visually familiarize yourselves with Temple’s campus at home is to use Google Maps’ Street View feature. (Open Temple’s campus map in a separate window, and click back and forth to pinpoint your exact location.) My daughter and I sat down to do this a couple months ago, and I had a great time clomping down Memory Lane as I showed her my dormroom window, Paley Library (where I worked the closing shift as an undergrad), and my classroom buildings (two of which are now gone). My daughter has done this by herself several times since, and she is learning her way around campus without having set foot there yet. This August, when she finally arrives, Temple will be visually familiar to her, and she will be more comfortable than if she had never "seen" Temple before. I have no qualms about my daughter’s safety at Temple, because I know from experience that Temple’s campus is safe, and because I have taught my daughter the street smarts I quickly acquired as an out-of-state Temple undergrad, and later expanded as a commuting grad student and Philadelphia resident. I am confident that Temple--and White Hall--will be as safe for your daughter.</p>
<p>If you have other questions about Temple, feel free to PM me. I attended Temple quite a few years ago, but Temple is still Temple (and if it weren't, my daughter wouldn't be going there). I’ll be glad to answer any questions you might have to the best of my (somewhat outdated) ability.</p>
<p>Again, congratulations to your daughter. Temple's terrific. She'll love it.</p>
<p>I live in Philadelphia and Temple is not in a good neighborhood ... at all.</p>