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Patterson Field Lights

Passed the GA on :  April 19th, 2006
Passed the Senate on: April 24th, 2006           

            We the Student of Occidental College request that the field lights of Patterson Field be turned on from 6:30pm-9:00pm Monday-Friday for the remainder of this year and for the years to come while Occidental is in session.

             As of right now the field lights for Patterson Field can only be turned on by a.) Campus Safety and b.) by the request of a club that has Patterson Field reserved. The current “flood” lights that are automatically turned on are not sufficient to cast enough light for the track/field to be well lit.  Therefore, we request that Campus Safety turn on the field lights during the school week at 6:30pm and turn them off when the gym and other athletic facilities close at 9pm.

             The reasons for this request are as follows:

 

1.)    SAFETY. Patterson Field is open for as long as the gym is open. We have many students who are only able to use the track/field for their workouts when it is dark. Because Campus Safety refuses to turn on the lights without a reservation, students are running on our track in the dark. This is an intimidating and unsafe environment for students. The situation is rife for injury by accident, assault, sexual assault and a host of liabilities associated with the use of the track while it is dark.

 

2.)    ACCESSIBILITY. It seems ridiculous that Oxy has just installed a new multi-million dollar field and it is unusable by students who would otherwise be willing to use the field and the track. We need the lights turned on to get our money’s worth out of this new investment.

 

3.)    CONVENIENCE. Many teams use Patterson Field from varsity to club sports. To get the lights turned on a team member must call campus safety and wait for the officer to arrive. This is inconvenient for both the officer and the students. This waiting time often cuts into valuable practice time, and pulls an officer away from other duties. If this duty was prescheduled, officers can plan to turn on the lights in a manner that coordinated with their schedule.

 

4.)    STUDENT FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT. The rules currently state that to use the field one must have it reserved for that time period. A student that calls campus safety will be denied usage if they don’t have a reservation and will be forced to either risk injury and train in the dark or simply not train at all. Having the lights turned on every night will allow more students to use the track, a right they all pay to have.

 

5.)    NO SCHEDULING DIFFICULTIES. In no way would this affect Master Calendar or scheduling. The team/club that requested the field or track would still have a right to the time allotted to them. By turning on the lights the field would be open to all students when not in use by others who have reserved it.

 

For the reasons stated above we as the students of Occidental College request these lights be turned on from 6:30pm-9pm Monday-Friday. For too long our teams have practiced in the dark, our students run on a track without sufficient lighting and our athletic needs been disregarded.