Student Council's Safety and Wellness Committee announced Tuesday the relaunch of its Lighten' Up Campaign. Now in its second year, the program aims to address deficient lighting in off-Grounds housing areas to enable students to take ownership of their safety by allowing them to apply online for installations.
"We noticed there was a need for [additional] lighting in a lot of off-Grounds areas that were being run by a lot of landlords," Council Vice President of Organizations Colin Hood said, who worked closely on the campaign last year as vice chair of the Safety and Wellness Committee.
Council has been working diligently with the Off-Grounds Housing Office, University Police and rental companies to make the program possible, but Co-Chairs Peter Townsend and CoCo Fraiche attribute much of the success to the efforts of Becky Campbell, crime prevention coordinator for University Police, and Off-Grounds Housing Manager Vicki Hawes.
The committee was able to address lighting concerns within a two- or three-week window last year, Hood said, but added that each situation had its own particularities.
"It depended on each situation," Hood said. "It included lots of conversations with the police department and the landlord and really depended on the situation."
Townsend, Fraiche and Hawes emphasized that one of the most beneficial aspects of the program was the opportunity to cultivate the relationships among Off-Grounds Housing Office officials, landlords and students through a discussion of shared safety concerns.
"The landlords have been very receptive to it," Fraiche said. "We're very close. We went over the different successes of last year and things we want to do this year and [Hawes] explained to me exactly what her role is as the mediator between the rental company and the student body in the application process," Townsend added.
Hawes added that the program involved a lot of coordination among many individuals but that everything was managed effectively.
"There were two places in particular where we felt the landlords should put up more lighting and in both cases the landlords responded and put up the lights we suggested," Hawes said.
Fraiche added, moreover, that students do not necessarily have to be residents of the areas they report.
"If they're going to visit one of their friends and feel uncomfortable, they can still apply for lighting - it doesn't have to be your own apartment," Fraiche said.
Hood added that the program will be unaffected by budget cuts because landlords have been cooperative in installing lighting.
"The landlords actually took the project very well," Hood said. "We actually had money set aside for the project, but the landlords were very willing to fund it."
Hood also noted that the program progressed with minimal challenges.
"We never had a problem where we didn't think the lighting wasn't meeting the specifications," he said. "We worked with the police department to ensure what needed to be there.
Additionally, Townsend noted that although students could submit requests anonymously in the past, the committee will try to tweak that policy this year so as to facilitate additional conversations with students.
"This year, we should definitely have better communications with the student," Townsend said. Fraiche agreed that Council also will look to improve communication with students so that they are updated but will still see their privacy respected.
She added that the committee will be working to publicize the program more so than last year using the new Student Council Web site.
"We did a lot of flyering last year, but this year the new Student Council Web site is attracting a wider audience and we're hoping that we can get a blurb out there," Fraiche said.
All those involved hope the committee can build on the program's past successes.
"It far exceed our expectations and the program on a whole was much more successful than we thought it would be," Hood said. "We were thrilled about it"
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