The Student Government campus lighting walk is an opportunity for students to provide their input on increasing campus safety.
Paul Coussan, Assistant Director of Safety and Transportation, said that each semester SG hosts the walks with one objective.
“Our focus is to improve campus lighting concerns by seeking student perspectives,” he said.
Coussan said Facility Services and LSUPD routinely conduct surveys of the campus.
“However, it is important to have students’ personal accounts on areas that make them uncomfortable because they are the ones who have to walk around on campus during the night,” he said.
After meeting at the Public Safety Building at 7 p.m. last night, students broke into nine different groups, one group for each section of campus.
Each group carried flashlights and a large campus map they used to mark areas they felt were unsafe.
Director of Energy Services Peter Davidson said in the past 2 years LSU has spent more than a quarter of a million dollars improving campus lighting and has plans to increase lighting with updates to the Quad and Parade Grounds.
“Today lighting around campus is significantly better than it was 5 years ago due to safety walks,” he said. “These walks have made our campus more safe and led to an increase in funding for more lighting.”
SG Director of Safety and Transportation Kyle Wilkinson said though the turnout for the walk was good he would have liked to see at least 10 to 15 more people participate in the walk.
“It’s important for students to become involved with this walk because it directly deals with their safety,” he said. “And every pair of eyes we have on the walk has the potential to find areas in need of life-saving improvements.”
Any problems found are compiled into a report that is sent to Facility Services to be fixed.