Poor campus lighting sparks safety concerns

When walking around at night on the University’s suburban campuses some students may constantly look over their shoulders, take their headphones off and keep a close eye on their surroundings due to a lack of lighting in some areas.
Many of the street lights on Cook and Douglass campuses are either not working, or there are not enough lights for the campus to be well-lit, specifically on the path behind the Eagleton Institute of Politics and around Hickman Hall, said SEBS/Cook Council President David Sorkin.
“This increases the risk because those areas now become target areas [for crime],” said Sorkin, a Cook College senior.
The Rutgers University Police Department is aware that students have voiced concerns about broken lights and the lack of lighting overall, he said.
RUPD Sgt. Michael Rein said the department has received concerns about the lighting on campus, but not for any specific areas.
“Some of the problems are [that] the lights are heat sensitive so when the light gets too hot, it shuts itself off and then regroups,” Rein said.
This could lead to misperceptions of broken lights, since they are located throughout campus, he said.
Busch Campus Council President Shaival Shah said there are also several areas on Busch that are poorly lit, specifically behind the Silvers Apartments and the engineering field.
“Because Busch is a very suburban campus, there are a lot of dark spots on the campus. These dark areas definitely increase crime. You can’t see what your surrounding is,” said Shah, a Rutgers College senior. “It brings perfect opportunities for one to engage in crime.”
Rein said although RUPD receives the reports for lighting issues, they are not responsible for fixing them.
“The police department doesn’t maintain lights, that’s [University] Facilities,” Rein said. “They do the installations [and] maintain the lights.”
Rein said he does not know of any attempts to improve poorly lit areas but it is the responsibility of RUPD to report lights that are out to Facilities for repair.
“New construction typically comes with new lighting which improves areas,” he said.
University Facilities could not be reached for a comment at press time.
Rutgers College senior Javeria Hussaini said many students might feel unsafe, especially those who have night classes on any of the darker campuses like Cook and Douglass.
“It’s really dangerous when you walk to the bus stop when you have classes at night,” Hussaini said. “There’s a lot of crimes that happen on college campuses.”
Rein said he understands that walking around at night in a dark campus may pose potential crime risks, but it is not the number one factor contributing to the number of crimes on campus.
“While darkness doesn’t contribute to criminal activity, it certainly doesn’t hinder it, and it works to create a disadvantage to individuals,” Rein said.
People also face disadvantages from being out at night and not making safe decisions, such as walking around alone or being distracted while talking on cell phones, he said.
Shah said the council plans to address these concerns by conducting a safety walk with RUPD, where they would walk around the campus together and point out unsafe areas.
RUPD does come to campus council meetings to address the concerns of students, Rein said.
“But the police department itself … cannot fix the lights,” he said.
Rein said like all machines, the lighting fixtures are imperfect and can break. Circuits break or water gets into the fixtures, causing problems.
“Overall, the lighting on campus is good and there’s not an overwhelming number of areas that are poorly lit,” he said.
He said when the department receives a report, it most often comes from areas where people should not be or on paths that are not designated walking paths.
Rein did not say which areas these are.
Students should visit publicsafety.rutgers.edu for more safety tips, Rein said. If a student wishes to report a broken light, he or she can contact RUPD or University Facilities directly.
RUPD is involved in the construction process of new buildings and makes recommendations about lighting and poor lit areas to mitigate poor situations before they exist, Rein said. Either way, criminal activity on campus cannot be directly contributed to poor lighting.
“I can’t personally speak [of] the reason why people do things, and maybe the criminal takes the poor lighting as his opportunity, [or] maybe that’s just a coincidence,” Rein said.
— Chris Zawistowski
contributed to this article

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