The independent newspaper of the University of Iowa community since 1868

The Daily Iowan

The independent newspaper of the University of Iowa community since 1868

The Daily Iowan

The independent newspaper of the University of Iowa community since 1868

The Daily Iowan

Fighting the dim of the night

Fighting+the+dim+of+the+night

By Elianna Novitch

[email protected]

Some dimly lit streets of Iowa City have raised concern among students and others about their safety as they walk at night.
The University of Iowa Student Government, along with UI Facilities Management and the city of Iowa City, is working to provide better off-campus lighting for targeted areas starting this year.

“This whole year, we have actively been looking at tracking off-campus lighting and looking at the areas that really need improvement that are around common student-housing areas,” said UISG student-safety liaison Sara Bultsma.

UISG put out a survey at the beginning of the academic year to learn about areas that students have concerns about omit regarding poor lighting. Those responses, along with conversations with students, helped UISG pinpoint the locations.

“You should be able to walk home at night to wherever you’re living and not be concerned and feel unsafe about your surroundings because of poor lighting,” Bultsma said.

The current areas where lighting concerns have been recognized include portions of Washington Street, Church Street, South Clinton Street, Davenport Street, Fairchild Street, and Bloomington Street.

“[This initiative includes] a variation of fixing the lights that needed to be fixed because there are a lot of lights that haven’t been replaced, and they are also looking into adding more fixtures if needed,” said UISG Sen. Connor Gronski, who has worked on the lighting initiative.

The off-campus lighting project was a BLOC Party platform initiative, and safety is a big part of the current UISG administration, he said.

“We knew the lack of lighting off-campus could lead to increased crime rates and more issues,” Gronski said. “We wanted to prevent those issues and knew that if we didn’t act upon it quickly, there could be a lot of repercussions in the future.”

The Safety Committee has worked with the city and Facilities Management on the initiative.

“The city and Facilities Management were very responsive and recognized that we had a problem and that it should be addressed,” Gronski said.

Along with UISG, the university also wants to be involved in addressing the safety concerns of students.

“The University of Iowa administration is very interested in combating the issue of off-campus lighting, so it hopes to host a walking event to point out places on campus with poor lighting,” said UISG Sen. Lilian Burns in an email to The Daily Iowan.

UISG is ready to move forward with the initiative and begin fixing immediate lighting concerns.

“It’s been great to be able to address [students’] concerns and see [this initiative] come together,” Gronski said. “An extra light pole or a light bulb being fixed could make all the difference.”

Besides addressing lighting concerns off campus, UISG also wants to look at on-campus lighting as well.

“We are going to continue to push this project further,” Gronski said. “It’s a good project that we’ve started, but we are definitely not to push for better off-campus lighting but also better on-campus lighting, too.”

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