As a history graduate student, my classes are only offered at night. One thing I have noticed is that my university’s campus does not have enough lighting for me to feel safe when going home in the dark. 

One clear example is the building I spend most of my academic time in, Fayard. Yes, there are lights to the right and left of the front when your back is facing the library, but I can’t even see the corners of the building when I leave, or the main walkway for that matter. Every time I get to the breezeway cutting through the building, I let out a sigh of relief because there is more light in that breezeway at night than there is during the day. 

I have heard people say, “Take another route.” In this I respond, “Have you seen the parking lot behind D Vickers?” I am thankful that I can ride my bike as quick as possible, but if I had to walk, I would be in panic for more time than I’d like. 

Even trying to go alongside the dorms, there are plenty of “dark” spots. I understand that they have the blue emergency stations to alert the UPD in cases of emergency, but the darkness to get to those areas do not make me feel any safer. 

Along with having night classes, I work during the day. This means that all the research I need to do for my research papers that are due at the end of the semester, I must do at night. I shouldn’t feel unsafe trying to get to the library. I should be able to walk anywhere on campus and feel as if there is enough lighting to where I don’t have to call for someone to walk with me. As a male, I can’t even imagine what some of the women on campus think. 

I’m not sure how much lighting up a dark area costs, but I would like to think that the safety of the university students, faculty and staff is more important and this extends to Hammond as a whole. 

I feel even less safe when I cross the street off campus to make the less than six minute bike ride home. On one turn, I can’t even see the side of the road which is kind of important considering that if I don’t follow the curve, I’m going straight into a deep creek, a mistake that has already happened. 

Due to how dark it is, I have to ride my bike on the middle of the road to ensure I don’t ride into the creek which is all fine and dandy until a car comes from either direction. The one time that cars were coming from both directions, and speeding, I thought I was gonna die. 

Needless to say, not only can the city I live in do with more streetlights, but also the university, can use with secure lighting around the areas of campus that I feel uncomfortable walking through at night.