Once again, the State Borough Council and UPUA do not see eye to eye. UPUA is opposing a borough council plan that would turn off the pedestrian lights for the next 6 months as a trial and use us students as guinea pigs.

UPUA Chief of Staff Matthew Smith had this to say regarding the turning off of lights.

The lights are valuable to students,” he said. “We want to be included in the dialogue on this issue.”

He is right. Students should be allowed to bring up their concerns about whether or not the lights are turned out. According to Tom Fountaine (the Borough Manager), crime has actually risen since the installation of lights. Also, council member Theresa Lafer claims that the lights flood into residents’ homes and cause students to trespass.

According to Lafer:

“The lights are bringing students into the backyards of citizens”

Thankfully, the option to turn all the lights off was overturned. I suppose the danger of students going into the backyard of citizens was overshadowed by the prospect of an increase in assault. Now the borough can get back to working on more important matters – renaming buildings and streets in honor of local and national figures.

Do you agree with this? What if we replaced all of the street lights with the Bat Signal?