Safety is a major concern on every college campus, and the University of Miami is not an exception.
The Campus Lighting and Safety Tour was conducted this past Wednesday evening as representatives from FPL, UNICCO, Disability Services, Student Government, Public Safety, and several other services came together to inspect safety on campus.
“The campus lighting tours are held twice a year (fall and spring semesters) in an effort to identify problem areas such as lights out, overgrown foliage, need for additional lights, etc. affecting the safety of our campus community,” stated Gayle Sheeder, Administrative Assistant in the Office of the Dean of Students. The tour lasted a total of an hour and a half where concerns such as inadequate lightning and overgrown foliage were pointed out as well as suggestions for placement of more blue light emergency boxes.
The largest concern however, was for the lack of emergency boxes in the Serpentine parking lot where construction is taking place on the new basketball arena.
“Once the construction is over, blue lights will definitely need to be put it. It doesn’t make sense to put them in before construction is completed because that will require major trenching which is extremely expensive,” said Henry Christensen from Public Safety.
The 25 individuals who partook in the tour were separated into two groups where they proceeded to make a thorough inspection of safety concerns around campus.
Group one inspected areas surrounding the academic buildings, Panhellenic and Interfraternity locations, Mahoney/Pearson Residential Colleges and religious buildings.
Group two surveyed the areas surrounding the Wellness Center, Gusman Hall, Ring Theater, University Center, Rathskeller, apartment areas as well as Eaton, Hecht and Stanford Residential Colleges.
Dean William Sandler accompanied the tour in which he made notes of what safety hazards were brought to his attention.
“I make a tape recorded memo of the findings and send the reports back to Physical Plant. The problem will usually get fixed immediately unless it’s a more extensive job which would take more time and planning,” stated Dean Sandler.
The tour showed that all in all, the University of Miami is a safe campus.
“Bill Butler who was the former Vice President for Student Affairs for thirty-two years first began these Campus Lighting tours about six to eight years ago. As a result, a lot of problems [concerning safety] were found,” said Dean Sandler.
Several years later, the Campus Lighting and Safety Tours are still taking place and have corrected countless safety concerns, Sandler said.