Penn State University Partners with CriticalArc to Enhance Campus Safety and Protect Its Community with SafeZone®

SafeZone deployment at Beaver Stadium reinforces Penn State’s commitment to campus safety through unified communication and emergency response.

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA, UNITED STATES, November 4, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — With over 87,000 students enrolled across the University in fall 2025 and a statewide network that includes University Park, Commonwealth Campuses, and the virtual World Campus, The Pennsylvania State University recognizes the importance of keeping its community safe, connected, and supported. Reflecting this commitment, Penn State has partnered with CriticalArc, the leading provider of critical incident management solutions, to deploy SafeZone^®, a unified safety platform that connects individuals with security teams and enables real-time incident response coordination, strengthening its approach to safety, situational awareness, and incident response.

The partnership represents a proactive investment in the safety and wellbeing of Penn State’s students, faculty, staff, and visitors. By bringing people, technology, and response teams together through a unified platform, the University is taking meaningful steps to ensure its community can access assistance when needed and that first responders have the information and tools to act quickly and effectively.

The initial deployment will focus on Penn State University Police and Public Safety (UPPS) operations at Beaver Stadium, where SafeZone will support police and public safety teams during home football games and other large-scale events. Beginning in one of the University’s most dynamic environments, Penn State plans to expand its use of the platform in phases, building a scalable foundation for broader safety and emergency response capabilities.

“Keeping our community safe at Penn State means coordinating across teams, venues, and campuses in real time,” said Wes Sheets, Associate Vice President and Chief of Police and Public Safety at Penn State. “The SafeZone platform provides immediate access to available safety resources and connects our officers, command staff, and those we serve in a way that is scalable.”

Protecting a university community of Penn State’s size requires collaboration, preparation, and a shared commitment to safety. The initial implementation brings together stakeholders from UPPS, information technology, and athletics, demonstrating the University’s coordinated approach to supporting the people who live, learn, work, and gather across its campuses.

At Beaver Stadium, SafeZone will allow command staff and first responders to maintain greater real-time visibility and coordinate incident response more effectively. The SafeZone Command Software and OmniGuard App will support capabilities including incoming alerts and response workflows, live team visualization, indoor positioning, mass and targeted messaging, secure chat, timed check-ins, and geofencing. Together, these capabilities will help UPPS strengthen operational awareness, support responder safety, and deliver timely assistance when it matters most.

“On game day, seconds matter, and having a clear picture of what’s happening is critical,” said Stephanie Delaney, Executive Deputy Chief of Penn State University Police and Public Safety. “SafeZone gives our command staff greater situational awareness by showing where responders are, providing precise location information with alerts, and allowing us to coordinate our response from a single view rather than piecing information together across multiple systems.”

Lessons from the deployment will help inform subsequent phases as Penn State expands its configuration and identifies additional ways to support the safety of its broader university community.

At the heart of the partnership is a shared belief that safety should be accessible, connected, and responsive to the people it serves, and it reflects Penn State’s long-term commitment to strengthening its safety infrastructure as its community’s needs evolve. SafeZone brings critical safety information, communication, and response coordination into a single environment, helping Penn State streamline workflows across existing systems while giving responders a clearer operational picture. As the platform expands, it can also give students, faculty, staff, and visitors a simpler way to reach information, assistance, and resources wherever they are. The partnership builds on CriticalArc’s work with leading universities to support both everyday campus safety and the operational demands of large-scale events.

“Penn State’s commitment to its people is at the center of this partnership,” said Anne Cynamon, Vice President for Higher Education at CriticalArc. “By investing in a connected approach to safety, the University is taking an important step toward ensuring its community feels supported and its response teams have the tools they need to protect them. We’re proud to work alongside Penn State’s UPPS, IT, and Athletics teams to support that vision, beginning at Beaver Stadium and expanding over time.”

Penn State and CriticalArc will continue working together throughout the phased deployment to refine operational workflows, develop integrations, and identify additional opportunities to strengthen safety, communication, and emergency preparedness across the University.

For more information on CriticalArc and SafeZone go to criticalarc.com or email marketing@criticalarc.com.

About The Pennsylvania State University
Penn State is a multi-campus, land-grant, public research university that educates students from around the world and supports individuals and communities through integrated programs of teaching, research and service. Its instructional mission includes undergraduate, graduate, professional, continuing, and extension education offered through both resident instruction and distance learning.

About CriticalArc
CriticalArc provides SafeZone^®, the unified safety, security and emergency management solution that helps large organizations keep their people safe and respond more effectively to critical incidents so they can fulfill their duty of care and mitigate risks. SafeZone fundamentally transforms the ability to manage personal safety, security, and emergency situations so organizations can respond faster and more effectively to protect their most important asset, their people. Through real-time visualization, communications, and response coordination, SafeZone streamlines operations, is easy to use and quick to deploy. For more information on CriticalArc and SafeZone, please go to criticalarc.com, email marketing@criticalarc.com or call +1-800-985-9402.

Sienna Kozin
SafeZone by CriticalArc
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