Temple University’s President Will Move Closer to Campus in 2023
Credit: Image Credit: Bastiaan Slabbers / NurPhoto / Getty Images- Temple University has launched an effort to engage its community and improve safety in its North Philadelphia community.
- As part of that effort, its president, Jason Wingard, will move into a home one block from Temple’s campus.
- Last March, the university awarded grants to landlords to improve safety and created neighborhood watch groups.
Temple University President Jason Wingard will take a new approach to improving engagement with the school’s North Philadelphia community in 2023: He’s moving closer to campus.
Wingard and his family will move into a row home one block from campus, Temple announced last month. He will be the first Temple president to live near the campus in decades.
“As a leader, it is crucial to take action that supports strategic priorities,” Wingard said in a press release. “For my family and me, this is a move that we have thought about carefully. It is aligned with institutional and personal values, and we are excited!”
The Temple property on North Carlisle Street has been used as office space, but the university is renovating it for Wingard, his wife, and their five children.
Wingard was appointed president of Temple University in July 2021. He is the school’s first Black president since its founding in 1884. He and his family will move to their new home from Chestnut Hill, where he has resided for more than two decades.
The move is Wingard’s latest effort to lift up Temple’s North Philadelphia neighborhood and improve campus safety. Last March, the university created a grant that allows landlords to apply for up to $2,500 to improve security with lighting and cameras.
The university also met with surrounding communities to establish neighborhood watch groups and have public safety ambassadors regularly patrol the area.
Wingard laid out the stakes and his vision for the move last month in an editorial in The Philadelphia Tribune.
“As of 2021, the median household income in North Philly was just over $37,000 (about half the rate of Pennsylvania), and 26% of North Philadelphians live below the poverty line,” Wingard said. “North Philadelphia’s 22nd Police District has seen more violent crimes than any other part of the city. This city — this community — needs support. I am fully invested in the community that Temple resides in, and becoming a resident will facilitate being a greater part of the solution.”