The ground is barely visible, with darkness hugging the horizon, fog forming and faint lights illuminating the distance.
This is not a scene from a horror movie, but the Pierce College campus at night.
The campus is too dark at night, which becomes not only a safety issue for students who take night classes, but can also be an uncomfortable experience. Recently, there have been reports of vehicle break-ins in the area surrounding campus, along Victory Boulevard and Winnetka Avenue.
With darkness-related concerns on the minds of students, Pierce’s next permanent president should make finding solutions a priority.
In the recent Pierce President Public Forum, moderator Stan Carrizosa asked each candidate, “What would you do about safety concerns that were brought forward by students? Especially students who attend courses in-person, at night or on the weekends.”
Interim President Ara Aguiar said she has noticed that the campus can be dark, and that she drives around at night to see which light bulbs are out.
“I’m actually learning what it’s like to have electrical transformers that are crashing because they are so old. I know that Measure LA is going to replace those,” Aguiar said. “It may not help sometimes, things are not immediate, but there is a game plan to get more lighting into the campus parking lots. Also the arboretum, the botanical gardens, also darker areas that need to be looked at.”
Interim Vice President at Cerritos College Wei Zhou, who is a candidate for Pierce president, said the safety and security of everybody is important, and that there are a lot of mechanisms to put into place, such as campus police to help students—if they need—in the evenings.
“The lighting is important if we’re talking about night classes,” Zhou said. “Especially the lighting within the instructional facilities, student support facilities and also all the way to the parking lot [or] bus stop, depending on how our students are getting out of campus.”
Carlos Cortez, who recently served as the chancellor of the San Diego Community College District, said the concerns—and ensuring resources are allocated accordingly—would be his primary responsibility.
“Certainly, there can be escort systems where students are hired as ambassadors to escort students to and from classes, or to and from their car,” said Cortez, who is also a candidate. “Shuttle services across campus, I’m not sure what’s available now, emergency call boxes, and the presence of more police. I’m not a big fan of having lots of armed police officers on campus, so in San Diego, we created a cadet program for young people who wanted to go into law enforcement that ended up providing so much of that coverage.”
Candidate Nathaniel Jones, the interim Vice Chancellor of finance and administration with the Peralta Community College District, said he would speak with students to further understand their security concerns.
“Some of the concerns may be addressed by increasing lighting in areas, deploying more blue boxes, for the emergency call boxes,” Jones said. “It could be having increased security. The other thing is—do a very comprehensive security assessment, and understand what might be the best remediation to the specific concerns that the students have had.”
Solutions beyond adding more lights include better advertising by the school for the escort service by the Sheriff’s Office.
On the Sheriff’s Department page, the Pierce website states, “To ensure the safety of our staff, students and visitors, we offer security escorts to vehicles. When desiring an escort, either come by the station, or call (818) 719-6450. Requests will be completed as quickly as possible based on priority, available personnel and completion of emergency calls.”
In an April interview, Aguiar explained that new buildings need to be in place before the lighting situation can be fully addressed.