Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

A West Valley College student walks across a footbridge at night.

Is West Valley College safe enough after dark?

Poor lighting and inoperable phones cited

By Tim Persyn

Although student representatives at West Valley College say their campus is safe at night, they also say the college could be doing more to address the needs of its night students.

Specifically, the college's Code Blue emergency phone units for the campus parking lots don't work and some students say the campus lighting is not adequate.

At a board meeting March 7, Greg Hoobler, a student trustee, said there is "a huge disservice to night students due to lack of safety."

The Code Blue emergency phones have presented a headache to students and staff from the beginning. West Valley began installation of the units during the 1992-1993 academic year and noticeable problems with the system arose soon after. Significantly, the phone system, which is intended to provide a line of communication during emergencies, couldn't operate consistently in wet conditions.

The system is currently not operational, despite expenditures of between $15,000 and $20,000 to repair it.

The district called in the LightPulse Company to study and make recommendations on fixing the system. Based on these recommendations, the board on March 7 sent to bid a recabling project that board members hope will make the system operational. A rough estimate of the cost of this project is $23,000.

Dallas Lawrence, West Valley's student body president, disagreed with the board's action to allocate more money to continue the same project. "Over the two years this has been going on, the blue phones have been a disaster," he said. "The company we contracted to do this hasn't fulfilled its obligation. To just throw more money at it is the wrong choice."

Sara Leslie, a West Valley student who sits on the Safety Committee, commented, "I considered it a total waste of money, and I think we should get our money back."

Nancy Rucker, a board member who voted for the action to bid the project, commented, "There is good reason to think it will work. LightPulse said they've identified the problem.

"Nobody came up with an alternative," Rucker added.

Lawrence said one alternative could be a cellular phone system, which would not present the cabling problems of the present Code Blue system. However, installation of a cellular system could run the district around $75,000, with increased monthly charges for the cellular service.

Joan Reitz, director of facilities, planning and operations for the district, said the recabling contractor will have to guarantee that the system can operate in all weather conditions.

In other safety matters, Student Trustee Hoobler said many students are concerned about the effectiveness of campus lighting. "The layout of the campus, which is very spread out, is less conducive to night classes because we have to walk long distances," he said.

Hoobler continued that the present lighting system is not bright enough in his and other students' opinions. "Some of the bridges spanning over the creek get dark," he said. "We would feel much better if we had brighter lights, and more lights. I think this is an area where we can address the needs of students."

However, Hoobler said, he still considers the campus safe. Leslie Grant, who handles the records for the campus police at West Valley, characterized the campus as "real quiet." "There's hardly ever anything reported at night," Grant said.

Reitz said, "We could use more lighting on campus, but there is more lighting now than there has ever been." She added, "We'd have to figure out our funding mechanism [if we are to get more light]."