A debate arose last night at Ohio University's Graduate Student Senate about a resolution regarding the lack of lighting on Jefferson Hill.
While the resolution eventually passed with no opposition, Vice President for Administration and Finance Chelsie Wollett asked to amend its wording.
Wollett said the resolution needed to be reworded to include safer conditions for drivers on Jefferson Hill.
The fact is now that you can drive up Jeff Hill
and if you drive the (Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium) area that's a huge blind spot (there) Wollett said. So once you hit the top of the hill
you can't see anything
and there is not a stop sign. ... It makes more sense for there to be a stop sign at the top of Jeff hill instead.
The motion to amend the resolution only gathered three votes, and another resolution that would include motorists and the possible movement of the stop sign might be brought up at the next meeting.
That issue would be a separate resolution from the one we are addressing
said President Tracy Kelly. We have the option of developing another resolution ... that covers that topic for the next meeting.
Kelly added that a second resolution may not be needed depending on how the new lighting would work on Jeff Hill.
It's hard to imagine what the area is going to look like fully illuminated
she said.
Without any additions, the resolution calls for additional lighting for pedestrians, citing that a survey released by the Presidential Advisory Council for Campus Safety revealed only 49.8 percent of students, faculty and staff feel safe on the OU campus at night.
With traffic being added this year
the lack of lighting is a danger
said Dane Johnston, the representative for counseling and higher education and a co-sponsor of the resolution. There's sidewalk conditions that you wouldn't be able to see with the (poor) lighting of the hill
which is of course a safety hazard.
The lack of lighting on Jeff Hill affects not only the students enrolled in the Patton College of Education, said Dave Nichols, the vice president for committees and legislative affairs and co-sponsor of the resolution, but also students that live in the dorms.
I think that it's great that Graduate Student Senate is addressing this
he said. The students who live in the residence halls down there ... this is pretty much their only mode of going uptown unless they are going to walk all the way around campus.
Responsibility for extra lighting should fall upon the city since they own the street, Kelly said.
It does appear though that the issue could be addressed by either (Athens or OU)
