Alyssa Elmore, Campus Carrier photo editor
Berry has a lot to offer, including picturesque scenery, wonderful wildlife and a safe campus feeling…until the sun goes down. Yes, some areas on campus are beautiful in the dark, like the Ford buildings. The rest of the campus, however, gets lost in the darkness that falls over Berry at night.
Streetlights do exist, but they don’t produce much light. I’m sure we have all been driving down Opportunity Drive at night and had to squint our eyes just to make sure there weren’t people about to cross the road. Okay, maybe my eyes are just particularly bad. We can all agree that streetlights should be fully illuminating the streets and the sidewalks for students to feel safe as we travel campus at night.
But it isn’t just students: Berry’s unique wildlife population can also carry concern in the dark as well. There have been numerous times where I have been genuinely startled by an animal appearing out of the darkness that I could not see before. More specifically, deer are unpredictable, and it is important that students in cars can always see when a deer is about to run in the road.
Recently, as I was on a bike ride back to my cottage off Faculty Drive, I felt fear build up as I continued further down the street. I was almost completely unaware of my surroundings. My fear led me to question: why can I not see 10 feet in front of me when traveling at night on the street I live on? This experience combined with several other night walks during my time here have made me increasingly upset by the lack of streetlights at nighttime.
Studies done at Ohio State University have indicated that students associate the lighting levels around campus with their perceived safety. In this study, they found that the perceived safest locations on campus also had a lux — a measurement of the intensity of light — that was 10 units higher than other locations perceived to be less safe.
A quick Google search provides numerous sources elaborating on the importance of well-lit college campuses. Not only is it important for campus security, but it can majorly improve the campus aesthetics and liveliness at nighttime. If students felt safer to be outside at night, there would be more socializing, more events, and more energy in general. Lighting also proves to be very important for video surveillance, but I believe that is an issue for a separate article.
In order to feel safe walking alone on campus day or night, it is important that we are aware of our surroundings, which is made possible by having sufficient lighting on campus. Improving the lighting situation at Berry would majorly benefit all students’ wellbeing on campus.