Early morning assaults call for increased area lighting
If you plan on walking home late at night, you might want to bring a flashlight — or even a spotlight.
Early Sunday morning, a female student was sexually assaulted on a rather dark part of campus. After walking down a flight of stairs to the lower Seigfred Hall parking lot, a man shoved her down and grabbed her butt.
About 20 minutes later, a similarly described man assaulted a woman in the area of Maplewood and Sunnyside drives. Had the lighting been brighter, it could have helped prevent the assaults.
But those are not the only low-light, high-risk spots on campus and in Athens. Much of Ohio University’s campus suffers from deficient lighting, and the lights that do exist are not very bright when powered. Emeriti Park and College Green are two examples of areas with insufficient lighting.
Some students have even created nicknames, labeling campus sites as “Rape Alley” or the “rape stairs.” That is outrageous. Students should not be afraid to walk campus at night, nor should a campus have specific places students have deemed dangerous.
For Athens, walking or driving on any street other than Court Street is a journey through darkness. Residents and students are taking a risk traversing the far dimmer neighborhood streets. The city and university need to brighten up the area.
OU does work to prevent assaults through the campus police’s SAFE-T Patrol, but patrol hours end at 2 a.m. Campus blue lights have been plagued with problems, and this past fall, both Student Senate and Graduate Student Senate passed resolutions calling for more lighting on Jefferson Hill, a street the city owns.
Solving this problem should not be that difficult. Brighter bulbs or more lights cannot cost that much, and the benefits would outweigh the costs anyway. Student safety matters, and a brighter, safer campus would encourage prospective students to enroll.
Even more importantly, by increasing the brightness of lighting, Athens and OU will reduce the risk of such occurrences. Better illumination would discourage attackers from making a move because they would be seen easily. Victims would also be able to get a better description thereby strengthening the composite sketch.
Student safety is a top priority for the university, as is residents’ safety for the city. OU and Athens cannot afford to wait much longer to invest in better lighting.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post’s executive editors.
