Simpson College is looking a little bit brighter these days.

Every month a list of burned out or broken lights is sent to maintenance from security. Maintenance does its best to work quickly and efficiently to keep this list as small as possible.

“This month the report came out on the eleventh,” Chris Frerichs, director of security, said. “We had a list of about 20 lights that were concerns of students. However, only ten of those were Simpson’s responsibility while the others were the city of Indianola’s.”

Most of the list is compiled by students who feel that a specific place on campus is not well-lit or have burnt out lights thanks to the online comment box that has been added on Simpson’s security page to inform security specifically where the lights are becoming a concern for students.

“Most of the lights were fixed in a timely manner thanks to the comments that students sent through the online comment box,” said Gaston Akerman, president of criminal justice club as well as safety programming undergraduate assistant for Campus Security. “For example, the external stairs in Buxton, they were very dark and a student asked us to do something about it. Now each level has a light. It’s all about communication and working together.”

Fixing lights is not very expensive and is worked into maintenance’s budget, Frerichs said. If students feel like there is not enough lights at a specific spot, maintenance will do its best to add lights.

“We have a full-time electrician on staff,” Frerichs said. “It’s not a big pain and it’s not really that expensive to add lights. One of the places we have been looking towards to add lights is behind Station Square apartments near the garages.”

Good news is that most students feel completely comfortable walking at night.

Sophomore Joshua Busick thinks that security and maintenance are working very well together to keep the campus well-lit.

“The lights seem to be the perfect brightness because I feel safe walking around and they aren’t too bright that they blind and distract people,” Busick said.

If students have any comments or concerns they can call maintenance at extension 1622 or leave a comment in the online box for security at http://bit.ly/aOVYBd.