Disclaimer: Student Government Association student affairs committee co-director Imaan Shikoh is a former Diamondback opinion columnist.
The University of Maryland SGA hosted its annual Safety Walk Tuesday night to pinpoint safety and accessibility issues on and around campus.
Event attendees included Student Government Association committee members, university personnel and University of Maryland Police. During this year’s walk, community members highlighted the lack of lighting and uneven sidewalk cracks on campus.
Attendees were split into three routes. One group focused on Route 1, while the second group ventured to North campus towards student dorms and the final group went South towards Lefrak Hall.
Paisley Brockmeyer, SGA’s transportation and infrastructure director, said the body tries to change its routes from previous years based on constituent concerns.
“We incorporate some of the concerns we’ve heard through the year and make sure that we hit them on the walk,” Brockmeyer said.
Brockmeyer, a senior physiology and neurobiology major, said an SGA representative received multiple complaints about the lighting in Washington Quad, so the body ensured the area was included in one of its routes.
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Imaan Shikoh, the co-director of SGA’s student affairs committee and leader of the third group, also emphasized lighting concerns on campus.
Some members discussed potentially adding more light posts near South Campus Dining Hall, Shikoh, a senior public policy major, wrote in a message to The Diamondback.
The lack of light posts on South Campus was also a concern during last year’s Safety Walk, The Diamondback previously reported.
But Brockmeyer said many of the lighting issues reported last year have been fixed.
“There’s always going to be little problems like [dead light bulbs], but this audit helps us keep that in mind and ever year make sure our lights are getting better,” she said.
Shikoh’s group also reported uneven cracks on frequently walked sidewalks, she wrote.
Sidewalk cracks were also an issue on North Campus last year, according to Bob Pils, Facility Management’s building and landscape maintenance department executive director.
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Alejandro Perez, an Incident Response Unit employee who attended the Safety Walk, also noticed some sidewalk cracks. It’s important to understand student perspectives to better work on campus repairs, Perez explained.
“This, honestly, is relaxing. It’s like stress free,” Perez said. “You get to take in everything without having the pressure of, ‘Hey, I gotta get this fixed.’”
Purple Line construction has also caused “many challenges,” Pils said. The situation is constantly changing, which is a major factor to consider when reporting concerns, Pils added.
Brockmeyer highlighted how Purple Line construction has impacted lighting on campus.
“It can be easy to complain about lighting,” she said. “But with the Purple Line, they had to take it all down to reconstruct the road.”
Despite the concerns brought up by attendees, Brockmeyer said she was pleased with the level of participation and turnout. There was also a good balance between university administration, students and police, Brockmeyer explained.
“It was very good that we didn’t have too much to comment on because that means our past Safety Walks have been working,” she said.
