Keegan Townsend

11/18/2015
English 101

Brighten up Academic West

Introduction
Coming home from the library at about six you pass through communications
lawn, a well-lit area abundant with rather normal looking pedestrians. Exiting
the lawn you make your way past academic west and start your descent to
the entrance to Fairhaven. Greeted by eerily lit walkways and a tunnel at the
end of the the path straight out of a horror movie, you make your way down.
Your only real solace, a bright blue light symbolizing safety and the thought
that maybe just maybe it will help you if you were to be attacked.
Any time after six, when the sun starts setting is when the walk to Fairhaven
and Buchannan becomes the creepiest walk ever. During the day the walk
through the area is mundane but beautiful you dont really feel like you are
going to die, but as soon as the night takes over you feel like you are walking
through a clique thriller movie. Every dim lamp hides a knife wielding maniac
and god knows whos hiding behind that murder tunnel. Every effect has a
cause, this place is no excuse. I took the liberty to write up a few key causes
and effects.
Cause and Effects
In Academic west there are many dim lights which generate a very uneasy
tone. As well as very dim lights on the paths, there are also dark unlit
adjacent paths that make you very warry to approaching people. Not only is
there dark paths the hillside is completely unlit, and it seems like anything
can come out of that darkness. On the end of the path in Academic West
there is a tunnel that at night makes you feel like youre going to get
attacked or kidnapped, and the only thing in the area that could make you
feel safe is an emergency station and it is very close to the tunnel which
makes you feel unsafe to use it.
Higher Wattage Bulbs
There is so many ways you could simply make the walk back home 100%
less creepy, one pretty easy way would be, simply putting higher wattage
bulbs in the already pre-existing lamps. This easily takes the creepiness level
down like 5 notches. In the long run replacing the bulbs really isnt too
expensive and it would sure put more people at ease as they walk to
Fairhaven and Buchanan Towers. There are many lights on the path but none
of them do their job well, reason being the low wattage of the bulbs. Sure we
could benefit from more lights, it would help immensely, what wouldnt help
is using the same low wattage bulbs. The lamps take up quite a bit of energy

and produce very little light, and the light they do produce is very eerie and
unsettling. LED lights are a very affordable and easy solution; I will talk about
price at the end.

Tunnel in Academic West

Sure the murder tunnel is creepy no matter what, tunnels are inherently that
way, but if you just make the exit side of the tunnel lit it would be
significantly less terrifying. Ask anyone, that tunnel is pretty scary. Once
when I was walking home from a friends late at night I glanced up from my
phone and briefly saw a person approaching the tunnel, a moment later I
glanced up again and the person was gone. That gave me more than enough
reason to take a sharp right and walk all the way past the rec center and on
to the main street adding probably another five to ten minutes to my walk.
Sure this experience was just my paranoia getting to me, but that area sets a
very scary tone, and in my opinion no one should walk through the area
alone.

Accurate portrayal of the murder tunnel.

Rock Rings
The Rock Rings at night look like they should be used to sacrifice animals to
the eldritch gods at night, which I dont know if you can picture that but
thats pretty frikin scary. It wouldnt be very cost effective but installing a few
lamps around the Rock rings wouldnt hurt, it would make the area
significantly less scary. My main point here is people fear what they dont
know, thats psychology, so illuminating dark areas and bringing mystery to
light getting rid of quite a bit of fear.
Emergency Station
2

As I previously mentioned in the cause and effects, there is an emergency

station on your way towards the tunnel. There are so many hiding places
around the tunnel that you have really no choice but to feel threatened. If
you were to be attacked would you rather be next to a really dark tunnel and
low lit paths or in an open well-lit area? Most people would pick the latter, as
of right now the emergency station is in the former, great placement huh? A
beacon of safety amidst a number of dark hiding places.

More Lights
First off adding more lights is a very simple solution to a multitude of
problems. Installing more lights as Ive touched on previously would set a lot
of people at ease, it brings to light the mysterious unknown and clears up
scary (putting that lightly) darkness. As an adult Im supposed to not be
afraid of the dark, for the most part I am. I dont sleep with a night light or
anything but the dark is inherently really freaky. Walking home in the dark
with a sense of death lurking around every corner is a very real thing when
going home in Fairhaven/Buchanan Towers.

I dont think many people like the prospect of getting murdered

In a perfect world you could just change things and not have to worry about
cost, but because we dont live in a perfect world here is a list of things that
would cost money but would come with benefits.
Cost/Benefits

More lights (lamps) in the area would light up dark and unpredictable places.
Lighting up the exit side of the tunnel may make the tunnel less threatening.
Adding brighter LED lights brightens the area and is much more cost
effective. Moving the emergency station would bring quite a big peace of
mind to many people traversing the area. Illuminating the Rock Rings would
add more use to them at night make them seem quite a bit less threatening
at night. As long as there are benefits cost really shouldnt matter unless the
cost outweighs the benefits.

Price
Price should be factored in somewhere in the proposal so here we go. The
average cost of a street lamp is between $4000 to about $8000, which
includes installation and upkeep, sadly the remedy to peace of mind is rather
steep which is a little disheartening. Contrary to the price of adding more
lamps, the replacement of old bulbs to new LED bulbs is relatively
inexpensive. According to Green Tech Media, The cost of upgrading the bulbs
is approximately $100.00 per lamp, sounds expensive but in the long run you
are saving so much more money in replacement of the bulbs and power
upkeep. The LED bulbs can last more than 50,000 hours, and they take up
65% less power, which living in an eco-friendly campus is pretty attractive.
Conclusion
Heilker said It is true that we, as a nation, are slipping. But fortunately, it is
a new decade with a new wave. This quote I think applies, we are a new
decade, a new wave and with the new wave change should follow. Safety
should be a priority, and a feeling of safety should not be earned or given it
should already be present. The fact that many students both male and
female feel unsafe on their way home is appalling, Home is a symbol of
safety and the path home should be too. Home shouldnt be a refuge away
from danger it should be another safe place among countless others.