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- Category: Campus News
Lincoln University, PA – Lincoln University has been selected by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) as one of nearly 400 cities and towns nationwide to receive funding from a $128 million grant to hire 1,750 additional law enforcement officers and deputies.
The University’s Public Safety Department will receive a $225,000 grant through the COPS Universal Hiring Program (UHP) to expand the University’s force by three full-time officers. According to Public Safety Director Larry Woods, the department currently has a 37-member staff, including 23 public safety officers and four sergeants. This includes three newly-hired public safety officers.
“As the University's student, faculty and staff population continues to grow, so does the need for increased public safety and security personnel on campus,”Woods said. “Hiring additional safety and security officers will allow us to be more responsive to these key groups.” According to the Office of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, Lincoln University received more than 4,000 student applications from students seeking admission to the University for the 2002-2003 academic year, a 26 percent increase over last year. The University’s undergraduate and graduate student enrollment has increased from 1,871 to 1,998 (1561 undergraduate and 437 graduate).
UHP grants fund 75 percent of the total cost of the salary and benefits of each new officer over a period of three years, up to a maximum of $75,000 per officer. After the grant funds expire at the end of the third year, grantees are required to retain COPS-funded positions for one full local budget cycle. To date, COPS has funded the hiring of more than 114,000 officers in more than 12,400 law enforcement agencies nationwide.
In addition to funding law enforcement positions, COPS provides technical assistance resources to help state and local law enforcement agencies implement innovative community policing strategies. The most recent statistics indicate that 86 percent of Americans are served by agencies that engage in community policing.
Founded in 1854, Lincoln University is a premier, Historically Black University that combines the best elements of a liberal arts and sciences-based undergraduate core curriculum and selected graduate programs to meet the needs of students living in a highly technological and global society. The University is nationally recognized as a major producer of African Americans with undergraduate degrees in the physical sciences.
For more information on the Open House, please contact Lincoln University’s Office of Admissions at (610) 932-3206. For more information on Lincoln University, please visit our web site at www.lincoln.edu.