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Walk to UHB unsafe for East campus
residents
By Carly
Hawkins
Last week at the Student Government Association meeting, Liz
Moran, the representative for Public Affairs and Administration,
brought the board’s attention to a problem that faces many
students on campus as a result of University Hall. While the new
building is, of course, very nice, the fact is that actually
getting to the building can be unsafe for many students.
Moran, an east side housing
resident, pointed out that there is still no sidewalk and very
limited lighting along Richard Wright Drive. (For those, like
me, who may have to look up on a campus map exactly which road
that is, it’s the one that will take you to parking lot G to the
south of UHall as well as past Kiwanis Stadium and eventually to
the Housing Commons.)
As an east side resident, this
problem is one that I foresee becoming worse as we approach the
winter months. The route from my apartment in Larkspur to UHall
is actually pretty direct – but even just the rain over the past
few weeks has made slugging through the mud on the side of the
road undesirable. While Richard Wright Drive is generally not
that busy, walking on the road still doesn’t strike me as the
safest way for students to proceed. In addition, the lighting
situation along that road is poor at best. With many of our
classes beginning and ending after sunset, what should be a
short walk to class has become a mounting safety concern.
We are getting to the point in
the year where we can expect snowfalls, and many are predicting
an extremely wet winter here in Central Illinois. Rather than
wade through snowdrifts, most students are going to choose to
walk on the plowed road. With the sun setting earlier, students
going to and from 6 o’clock classes could face a Frogger-like
walk of dodging cars while trying to avoid soaking themselves in
snow. Meanwhile, the only option that east side residents are
left with is taking an extremely circuitous route that adds a
lot of time to what should be a short walk to class.
The problems are not limited
solely to east side campus residents, however. Anyone who has
driven along Richard Wright around the time that classes are
about to start or have just gotten out knows the number of
students that cross that road from the soccer field parking lot
to get to class. With, again, the limited lighting available,
it’s amazing that there hasn’t been an accident already.
While it is and should be
primarily up to students to keep themselves safe in many
situations, it is also the university’s responsibility to do a
bare minimum to facilitate safe practices. Most other areas have
adequate sidewalks and lighting, along with the reassuring
Emergency poles placed around campus, but the lack of a sidewalk
and additional street lamps on Richard Wright Drive is a gross
oversight in the design of the UHall and quad area. Associate
Chancellor Ed Wojcicki offered to forward the concerns of Moran
and others to the appropriate campus committee, and I certainly
hope that that committee makes this issue a priority and acts
swiftly.
And while we’re talking about
sidewalks, could someone please connect Pennyroyal and
Marigold, already? That’s just ridiculous. |
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