by Damian Garde
Daily Lobo
After seven years of lobbying and fundraising, ASUNM will soon fulfill its goal of installing lights on Johnson Field.
"The lights make the University more like a university," former ASUNM President Brittany Jaeger said. "I went to about 12 other universities to see what they were doing, and of all 12, only one didn't have lights on their recreational field."
The project cost $720,000, including equipment and installation.
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The Legislature has given $260,000 to ASUNM to complete the project. UNM supplied the remaining $460,000, Jaeger said.
The lighting system will be up and running by the beginning of the fall semester, project manager Maria Probasco said.
The lights will make campus safer for students, Jaeger said.
"For those students that live in the dorms, it's a huge safety factor," she said. "(Johnson Field) is like a black hole on campus between students and all the services the University is offering to them."
However, there have been no crimes reported on Johnson Field in the past two years, said Lt. Pat
Davis, spokesman for UNM Police.
That doesn't mean the lights aren't necessary,
Davis said.
"I think crime and safety is as much about the perception of being safe as the reality," he said. "Students have always felt unsafe crossing Johnson. So, we know a lot of people go out of their way to get around the field. It's as much about being safe as it is about providing people an easy way to get where they're going."
Student Neil Werbelow, who lived in the Student Residence Center last year, said he doesn't see a need for the lights.
"Every day, traveling from (the School of Architecture) studio back to the SRCs, I never felt unsafe on Johnson," he said. "I'm not sure lights are
necessary."
Student Joelyn Timoner said walking across Johnson Field at night was unpleasant.
"It was a little unsafe just walking around, because you wouldn't see the people walking toward you or behind you," she said. "It was scary if you were alone."
The cost of running the lights has not been calculated, said Benson Hendrix, a UNM spokesman.
Hendrix said the lights conform to the New Mexico Night Sky Protection Act, a law regulating energy efficiency for outdoor lighting fixtures.
There will be safety lights in the center of the field and on the north and south sides that will be on every night.
There will also be brighter field lights for sporting events at night.
A similar system is used at the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, Calif.
The lights are designed to minimize glare and spillage and keep light from shining into the dorms.
