By David Elvir and Grace Beckner
SGA and Trevecca security are in the process of assessing where more lighting is needed on campus.
Several SGA and faulty members received reports from residential students concerned with how well lit the campus is at night. Students living at the University Terrace Apartments said lights are not always on at night and they sometimes turn off when someone walks by.
“It’s not like I don’t feel safe because of this, but I must say, it does feel somewhat sketchy at times,” said Cesar Marini, an international student living at Trevecca. “Usually if lights turn on and off, it’s when someone walks by that they turn on, but here you walk out in the parking lot and they actually go off. It’s honestly a bit weird.”
The security team were also made aware of the issue and have started working in conjunction with SGA and Student Development.
“We are so thankful for great partnerships on our campus,” said Morgan Morris, director of student life. “We believe each of the groups involved in this project brought a unique and helpful perspective to the lighting assessment.”
Morris received some of these complaints and started looking into ways to find a solution.
“Trevecca takes safety and security seriously for all students. Lighting is important for safety and security on all college campuses, so we wanted to assess and make note of the lighting on Trevecca’s campus,” Morris said.
In a meeting SGA members suggested partnering with security to conduct an assessment of the lighting around campus to find the areas where lighting is lacking.
“We took detailed notes of where lights were not functioning properly and additional lighting would be helpful, then reported those notes. We are hopeful these notes will be helpful to our campus moving forward,” said Morris.
Morris said the notes from the lighting assessment were submitted to Dean Dykes who passed them on to other campus administrators.
Greg Dawson, director of security, said he is an advocate for increasing campus lighting, as he has found good lighting to help deter crime.
“As for people feeling safe, I have heard both [sides]. Some people feel very safe walking around campus, while others are not,” Dawson said. “Security offers escorts to anyone who does not feel comfortable walking alone or even as a group.”
Dawson said every safety concern is heard by the security team and anyone can call to request a security escort at 615-642-3523 if they feel unsafe.
