Champlain students ‘light the path’
For the second year, Champlain College students and community allies held a demonstration at the entrance of the path leading from campus to Champlain residences at dusk to draw attention to the lack of lighting on the path.
The students posted signs demanding adequate lighting for the path and strung several hundred feet of lights near the entrance powered by a generator.
A group also walked the path together to demonstrate how dark it is on the trail, surrounded and overhung by
trees, after the sun goes down. The Champlain students released a statement in conjunction with the ‘light the path’ demonstration.
“This symbolic and creative action is intended to raise awareness for the need to install permanent lighting in order to increase safety for students who regularly use this walkway as their primary route to school,” the statement read.
The long-term goal of the event, according to the statement, is to have permanent lighting installed on the path, also asking that the path be maintained and patrolled regularly by Bishop’s University security.
Earlier this month the administrative bodies of Champlain and Bishop’s made the collective decision to declare the path, which is the property of BU, officially off limits between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.
The decision was made in the wake of a number of unconfirmed reports of alleged sexual assaults against students on the streets of Lennoxville.
The consensus among students at the demonstration on Wednesday evening was that the problem had been ignored for too long, and it was time to invest in the safety and security of students using the path.