Bu/champlain forest path to get lights, call boxes

Champlain College Lennoxville Campus Director Nancy Beattie told The Record that she received confirmation this past June that the path that runs from the Bishop’s University Campus to the Champlain Residences on Winder Street will be getting emergency call boxes and a lighting system.

“It’s very good news,” Beattie said, adding that work could possibly start in as little as a couple of weeks.

The Campus Director acknowledged that there has been an ongoing conversation between the university, which owns the path, and Champlain, whose students are its primary users, over the past few years, and said that she feels the university has been very responsive and helpful on the issue

“Bishop’s has been successful in getting the ministry to approve the use of some funds to actually put in a series of call blocks and lights on that path,” she said.

Concerns about the safety of the unlit forest path that runs from behind the BU library to the golf course and Champlain Residence buildings have been around in the community for years, but the most recent series of actions date back to 2016, when students in Champlain’s International Studies program held a “light the path” protest to express their concerns. Those concerns came to a head in 2017 when allegations of sexual assaults in the campus community prompted the two schools to declare the path officially off limits between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Olivier Bouffard, Bishop’s University’s new Director of Communications, confirmed that the project will be moving ahead, although he underlined the fact that the timeline is not certain yet.

“The call for tenders should be issued shortly,” Bouffard said, noting that depending on what offers are made in that process the work might be done in the Fall of 2018 or in the Spring of 2019.

The BU spokesperson said that there are two work orders involved in the project, with the first surrounding excavation and the pouring of post foundations and the second involving the electrical components. He did specify that there would be a total of three call boxes installed along the path although he said it is too early to tell if they will be in place any earlier than the lighting system

Asked if there is a plan to install other, similar call boxes around the rest of the campus, as is the case on some other university campuses, Bouffard said that the project is limited to the work on the path. He pointed out, however, that there are a variety of tools already in place to help people on campus reach emergency services quickly, including the Safegaiter mobile app.

According to Beattie, once installed, the call boxes will patch a student directly through to the security officer on patrol.

“Whoever is on duty, on patrol, will get the call immediately,” the Campus Director said.

Although Beattie hailed the development as very positive news, she stressed the fact that Champlain doesn’t view the lights as a magical fix for the safety of the path.

“Even with call boxes and even with lights along the path it is still a path through a lovely, but isolated forest,” she said. “We would discourage students from using it at night and it will remain officially closed at night as it is now.”

The campus director encouraged all students to walk to residence after dark through town and with a buddy, just to be safe.