"Let There Be Light."

It is the University of California motto, from the Latin "Fiat Lux." And it is the purpose of a walk scheduled for next week, to inspect exterior lighting on the UC Davis campus in the interest of safety.

Students, staff and faculty are invited to participate. In fact, the more people, the better — because the more people who turn out, the more ground that can be covered and the more lights that can be checked out.

And there are a lot of lights to check out: about 4,000 on poles alone — along streets, paths and in parking lots. There are hundreds more under eaves, along stairways and elsewhere around buildings.

"With that many lights, it's almost impossible for us to know which ones need fixing, without the campus's help to find them all," said Damon Williams, superintendent of power and light within Facilities: Operations & Maintenance.

'Safety concerns'

This is one reason the campus endeavors to conduct lighting safety walks at least once a year — to look for lights that are burned out or broken, or obscured by vegetation. Of course, maintenance crews welcome reports at any time on broken lights; call (530) 752-1655.

The lighting safety walk, however, is a good opportunity to check out the whole campus at once, not only for broken lights, but for areas that may need better lighting. "This is your opportunity to walk the campus and help address safety concerns," said Lt. Matt Carmichael of the campus Police Department.

He said Police Chief Annette Spicuzza and some of her officers will be participating, and student government leaders are invited.

The lighting safety walk is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. Nov. 13 at the Memorial Union, and teams may be out for at least a couple of hours, Carmichael said. "Hopefully we will get enough people to cover all the areas," he said.

ASUCD Sen. Andrew Peake said he and others from student government will participate in the walk. In an e-mail to Dateline, Peake noted that he is 6-foot-1 and even he does not feel safe walking across parts of the campus at night.

"I have had people come up to me and say that they don't feel safe, that they don't feel comfortable," Peake said. "When students don't feel safe on their campus, there is a problem.

"Hopefully we can figure out exactly what the problem is and fix it."

The third-year political science major asserted at a recent public meeting that the university nixes lights where they detract from the campus's aesthetics. This jeopardizes safety, Peake told Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef at his Oct. 10 brown bag chat.

Office of Administration Vice Chancellor Stan Nosek, seated in the audience, quickly responded: "Safety always comes before aesthetics."

Peake said he has noticed lighting problems in the area where he walks most frequently: in and around the Quad. That is Zone 4 on the lighting safety walk map.

"There are most likely areas on campus that other students have strong opinions about," Peake said.

Carmichael said the lighting safety map comprises six zones, and he hopes to have enough volunteers to assign a team to each one. A leader and scribe will be named for each team.

Williams said the task of noting broken lights will be easier because of new, larger number decals that maintenance crews recently affixed to all light poles.

Upon completing their work, each team will be asked to return to the MU to turn over their notes.

Carmichael said a report will be forwarded the next day to campus maintenance, so workers can immediately set out to fix burned out or broken lights and cut back vegetation that is obscuring lights.

Suggestions for improved lighting will go to the resurrected exterior lighting committee, Carmichael said. The committee will include representatives from the Police Department and Facilities: Operations & Maintenance, as well as Associated Students, he said.

Carmichael noted that just because an area is dark does not mean it should or will get more lighting. "The focus of our walk will be on preferred paths of travel which are illuminated," he said. "We are not advocating that people go walking in areas that are just not designed for pedestrian traffic."

Peake, on the other hand, said: "Lighting should be where people walk."

Police and campus officials said they will listen to all suggestions. And, Carmichael added, all lighting safety walk participants will receive updates on how the university is responding.

"We will be telling people, 'This is what we fixed and this is what we are looking into,'" Carmichael said.

People who would like to volunteer for the lighting safety walk are asked to meet at the flagpole on the south side of the Memorial Union at 5 p.m. Nov. 13. Wear comfortable shoes, because there is a lot of walking involved, Carmichael said. He added that hot cider and other treats will be served during a briefing prior to the lighting safety walk.