The Penn State University Police and Public Safety (UPPS) department will launch its fourth campus-wide survey on policing, public safety, and campus security on Wednesday, October 1. The survey, administered by Penn State’s Office of Planning, Assessment, and Institutional Research (OPAIR), aims to gauge how students, faculty, and staff perceive campus safety and the performance of UPPS.

Respondents will be drawn from a random sample of students and employees across all major Penn State campuses. This includes University Park, Abington, Altoona, Berks, Behrend, and Harrisburg, plus several smaller campuses such as Beaver, Brandywine, Great Valley, Hazleton, Schuylkill, and others.

An email invitation with the survey link will arrive in participants’ inboxes beginning October 1. The survey should take about 15 minutes to complete, and participants may skip any questions they find uncomfortable. Responses are confidential, and raw data will not even be shared with UPPS. Instead, findings will be reported in aggregate form.

The questions will explore topics such as the overall performance of University Police, competency and conduct of individual officers, perceptions of officer behavior and attitude, and community concerns related to safety and security.

Although the survey targets policing on Penn State properties, it does not cover off-campus law enforcement agencies or non-UPPS jurisdictions.

Associate Vice President and Chief of Police and Public Safety Wesley Sheets emphasized the importance of honest feedback.

“Hearing directly from the Penn State community is essential to refining how UPPS operates and improving campus safety efforts,” Sheets said.

The survey results will become public in the spring of 2026.