Brighter nights ahead as campus adds more LED lighting

The UO campus is about to get a whole lot brighter.

The Associated Students of the University of Oregon is working with Campus Planning and Facilities Management to make lighting improvements in 78 locations around the university. New lights are already beginning to go up, and the rest are expected to be finished by the end of the school year.

“When we campaigned in the spring, one of our core platform points was campus safety, and improving the lighting fell under that,” ASUO President Quinn Haaga said. “Seventy-five percent of students live off-campus and campus gets pretty dark at night, so getting home at night can be a little bit scary.”

The spots were identified in the fall when the ASUO put on the annual Campus Night Safety Walk. More than 50 students showed up for the event, walking various routes around campus and pointing out places that could use some illumination.

In previous campus walks, only five locations on average were identified as in need of better lighting. By making the walk a point of emphasis, the ASUO was able to greatly increase the level of participation from the student body and cover a much larger area.

All of the new lights will use LED bulbs, part of a campuswide effort to improve efficiency and have less of an environmental impact. LEDs not only provide the most light, but they are also the most energy efficient and leave the smallest carbon footprint.

“It’s exciting to see the results,” said Kyle Heiner, ASUO communications director. “Already so many of the lamps have been implemented, and by the end of the year, it’ll be done. They’re excited to get it done because it was one of their big campaign promises, but also it is something that will help and directly benefit students by increasing safety and easing people’s fears.”

To see the full press release, which includes a map of the locations of the new lights and a graph comparing the LED bulbs with older incandescent lamps, see the ASUO Facebook page.

By Noah Ripley, University Communications