ALANA WINGATE
Staff Writer
During the daylight, SUNY Fredonia’s campus is filled with students. But when the lights go down, the familiar terrain can feel unsafe and isolating in the midst of darkness.
For many students, walking around campus in the dark can be highly unsettling due to a lack of lighting on campus.
“I think there could be more lights. It feels a bit dark at times; more towards the suites and the track. Sometimes I find myself having to use my phone flashlight,” said junior music education major Leah Magee.
We posted a poll on our Instagram story (@leaderfredonia) asking students if they would feel safer with more lights on campus at night. Out of the 99 total responses we received, the majority of students, 77% (76 students,) said they would feel safer with more lights. Whereas, 23% of students, 23 students said they wouldn’t feel safer.
Although many students seem to agree that the campus could use a brighter touch, Kevin Cloos, director of Facility Services, said that to his knowledge this is the first he’s ever heard of the issue. However, he is glad to know the problem and said he will work to fix it.
“I think part of what we need to know is the areas that people are most concerned about,” Cloos said. “… If there are certain areas that are very dark or feel unsafe, identifying those [spots] would really help us. That way, we could evaluate those areas and see if we can add more lighting.”
According to University Police Chief Brent Isaacson, the campus strives to make the campus as safe as possible through evaluations by the Campus Safety Committee.
“At least once a year, we do a safety walk around the campus,” Isaacson said. “We partner with the Environmental Health and Safety Office here on campus and our Facilities Department.”
Even though both the Facilities Services and UP go to great lengths to make the campus feel comfortable for all, they said that the responsibility also falls on the students to make sure they express their concerns.
“We really work hard to get students involved in this process. [The Campus Safety Committee] is basically a group of people with different responsibilities that get together at least once a year,” Isaacson said. “We go around campus and make note of areas where maybe there does need to be a lighting improvement, or where some bushes and or shrubs need to be cut back to allow more visibility.”
Lighting on campus is a concern for many students. The concern stems from that anyone from the community can just walk idly on campus.
“Sometimes I have the unnerving feeling that something could happen to me, especially knowing just anyone can walk on campus,” Magee said. “This feeling typically occurs in the later hours of the night between midnight and 2 a.m. [when] I’m walking back from Mason Hall or coming back from being off campus.”
Due to past incidents that have occurred, the concerns of anyone being able to come on campus and cause harm is a very real one. However, Isaaccson said that there are certain protocols they follow if a situation does occurs
“One of the requirements for a campus law enforcement agency is that we have to, by law, issue what are called timely warnings,” Isaacson said.“If there is a crime that occurs on our campus and we don’t immediately solve it, there’s a reasonable belief that the offender may offend again.”
Isaacson said that since entering the role of University Police Chief, there have only been two cases of this scenario, where they had not responded to an incident on campus as quickly as usual. In both cases, it was an outside person who came onto campus from the community.
While there are many students who do feel somewhat unnerved walking the campus grounds at night, some students feel perfectly fine walking on campus as is.
“I do feel safe walking on campus. Aside from the wild animals such as foxes or skunks, I have no fear of a person harming me,” said Anthony Pascal, a freshman public relations major.
Although UP does patrol the campus both day and night, the concerns regarding the campus lighting comes mostly from many female students that feel uneasy about walking on campus at night alone.
“I know campus police usually will do rounds around the campus, but having the ability to have someone walk with people back to their rooms should be an option,” Magee said.
Even though Pascal has no fear of being harmed on campus, he also does acknowledge that some modifications couldn’t hurt.
“An increase of cameras would be nice; however, I don’t necessarily feel that the university needs to do much else,” Pascal said.
Overall students that have concerns about campus safety and what should be done to maintain it can always reach out to Facilities Services or the safety committee.
“I think one of the big things to share is that if folks are feeling that there are some areas of concern, we do have the campus safety committee and there is a way to submit it to that committee,” Cloos said. “The areas of concern are then routed to myself and to the Office of Environmental Health and Safety. Then we can take a look at that, or even just through our work order system on the maintenance side for facility services.
Since being made aware of these concerns, both the University Police Department and Facilities Services said that they will endeavor to look into the lighting issue so that all students can feel at ease on campus during the day and night.
A safety tip that Isaacson recommended for all students is putting the University Police phone number, (716) 673-3333, into their cell phone. Calling UP versus dialing 911 in the event of a campus emergency will result in a faster response time.
Isaacson also encourages students to download the Rave Guardian app, which is available on iPhone and Android devices. The app contains many helpful features for students such as a police badge icon. Pressing the badge will not only place a call to the police department, but it will also automatically provide the emergency responder with your precise location. The app will only reveal the location of an individual if it is triggered by the user.