Cecil B. Moore Station Plaza on March 25. A park area where students once gathered and skateboarded is now guarded by a fence.
Temple University and Philadelphia police departments installed barrier gates at the Cecil B. Moore Plaza to mitigate unlawful activity and large gatherings of children and teenagers, Vice President for Public Safety Jennifer Griffin confirmed to The Temple News Wednesday.
The Department of Public Safety will continue monitoring to determine the barriers’ necessity, Griffin said.
Temple students and community members often gather at the plaza for recreational activity and sell handmade items and clothing.
Kids across Philadelphia often gather on Main Campus due to a lack of accessible extracurricular and community resources, The Temple News reported.
PPD and DPS are working closely to discourage large and “disruptive” meetups on campus, including increased patrols, an expanded security presence and “additional preventative measures,” Griffin wrote in a message to the Temple community March 20.
Large youth gatherings at Temple have led to conflicts with police and university students in the past. Four students were assaulted by a large group of “unsupervised” minors in April 2025.