Campus administrators and authorities met yesterday for the second annual campus Lighting & Safety walk to discover potentially hazardous or dimly lit walkways on campus.

Attendees of the open campus event joined the UCSB Police Dept. and Community Service Organization, splitting into four different campus routes. Participants took note of all extinguished light sources and potential safety risks, such as sidewalk cracks and potholes.

[media-credit id=20164 align=”alignleft” width=”250″][/media-credit]The routes covered all main parts of campus and West Campus.

According to UCPD Chief of Police Dustin Olson, additional funding was allocated for lighting concerns this year, allowing for the installation of 50 more lamp heads near San Rafael Residence Hall. UCSB staff members will continue the installation process and use new lights in place of older models.

College of Creative Studies Dean Bruce Tiffney said the focus of the walk is to find problems that people run into everyday, but don’t consider reporting. These unsafe areas could encourage accidents or muggings.

“You notice these things every day but nobody bothers to go out and make a list of them,” Tiffney said. “We’re looking for any poorly lit areas, cracks in the sidewalks or any places where somebody could potentially get into a dangerous situation.”

Olson initiated this walk last year after originally instituting it at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas — his previous university of employment.

Once faulty lighting was discovered, participants recorded the specific serial numbers of dead lights and reported them to a designated group member, usually a CSO.  After all reports are collected, Campus Design and Facilities will investigate outage causes.

UCPD Detective Mitch Molitor said the groups located a greater number of problematic lighting this year.

“There were a lot more dead lights out there than I expected,” Molitar said. “However, there were less hazards such as cracks in the cement.”

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