Campus safety addressed in walk

With Halloween right around the corner, many students might be a little apprehensive of taking a walk around campus after nightfall.\nBut the Commission on Personal Safety is making efforts to improve safety by making sure walkways and parking lots are properly lit.\nThe Commission held its annual Fall Night Walk Monday around the campus, evaluating the poorly lit areas that students had most complained about.\n"We need to keep the campus sensitive to these problems," said Dean of Students Richard McKaig. "Most of the people on this walk drive to campus every day. They aren't walking around."\nThe group met in the parking lot across from the Service Building at the corner of Walnut Grove and Cottage Grove avenues, and wound its way through the University's many streets and walkways.\nMany said it is important for people to feel safe walking alone at night. \n"My impression is that in a crowd even darker places aren't as intimidating, but when you're alone you start hearing things," parking manager Doug Porter said. "If you're in a parking garage with a bunch of people, it's no big deal, but if you're all alone in that garage at 1 a.m. it feels a lot different."\nAlong with lighting problems on campus, a representative of the IU Student Association joined the group to alert walkers to concerns about the blue lights that warn the IU Police Department of emergencies.\n"We realize that sometimes the buttons are pushed as pranks or there's just not someone to respond, but there have been lots of complaints, and we're not sure if they're always responded to," said junior John Peck, health and safety director for the IU Student Association.\nA major challenge for the commission was understanding the ways people use the paths around campus.\n"Students just take off in a direction if there's not a fence in their way, and even then sometimes they'll just go over it," Porter said. "We advise them to use common sense and avoid areas that are naturally dark."\nHowever, he said there are no plans to do anything about Dunn's Woods, the area that students most complain about.\n"The theory is that they leave (Dunn's) Woods dark on purpose so people will stay out of it," Peck said.\nThe area would need to be cleared to properly light it, as well.\n"My understanding is that they would have to cut down the trees and basically make it into a parking lot," Carol McCord, assistant dean of women's affairs, said. "We don't want to ruin the beauty of the campus."\nAt the end of the walk, the commission recommended changes in lighting in the area behind Collins Living-Learning Center, the portion of Woodlawn Street just off campus, and the walkway between Foster Quad and the Kelley School of Business.\n"We're certainly not saving energy, but at least it's safe," Peck said.\nThe commission will hold another campus walk in the spring.\n-- Contact staff writer Chris Freiberg at wfreiber@indiana.edu.