Binghamton University

Personal Safety Advisory Committee

Anthony Preus, Chair
8/18/2008

To: President Lois DeFleur and the Campus Community
Subject: Annual Report of the Personal Safety Advisory Committee 2007/8

During the 2007/8 Academic Year, the PSAC made a special point of responding to the list of “Committee Responsibilities” outlined above in section B. This is the Annual Report mentioned in section C.

We began the year’s work on September 20, 2007. We knew from the start that we needed to look at the Downtown Center, so we scheduled that visit for October 11, and discussed issues with which we needed to be concerned on that visit. (Our report on the DTC is included below). We also reviewed some incidents that had occurred since our last meeting in Spring 2007. The Committee was informed that the Administration had decided to arm UPD with Tasers, and had done so, over the summer. The Committee was disinclined to engage in an extended discussion of this decision.

At the September 27 meeting we reviewed additional safety concerns with the Downtown Center, and turned to initial discussion of Clery Act responsibilities, particularly since we were aware of some incidents since the beginning of the semester. The member from the Counseling office summarized some of the goals and aspirations of her office in that direction, and a member from UPD added comments about our cooperation with outside agencies, particular Binghamton Police, in issues of sexual assault. It was agreed that one of the biggest current problems is spiked punch at some parties, either with an excessive amount of alcohol, or with other drugs such as “roofies”. Students have reported, apparently honestly, that they have had relatively little to drink (say for example two glasses of punch) and have passed out and are unable to remember what has happened for the past several hours. The word is out in Res Life to students “Don’t Drink the Punch” but we can’t count on everyone hearing that, let alone acting on that recommendation.

A member of the committee asked what happens when a woman comes in with a complaint of this nature. She was assured that Binghamton University authorities take such complaints very seriously, and attempt to pursue the issue to the extent that the complainant is willing to pursue it. Another member pointed out that complainants have a variety of options, and do not always choose the most aggressive. [This was an ongoing theme throughout the year: neither police agencies nor Judicial Affairs are prepared to act aggressively in sexual assault cases without committed cooperation from the victim. This is indeed standard protocol: “Decisions on how to proceed must be made by the victim.” Since victims who are prepared to act aggressively in concert with Police or Judicial Affairs are extremely rare, prosecution either through the courts or through judicial affairs is consequently extremely rare if not non-existent.]

A UPD member noted that there have been raids on off-campus parties, sometimes on the basis of reports of excessive reactions to punch. He also noted, and was seconded by others, that transportation by Harpur’s Ferry and other agencies, particularly to Binghamton General, has happened pretty frequently on weekends. A member of the committee wondered whether there might not be some sort of informational pamphlet that could be distributed by the staff of Binghamton General to people who come to the emergency room poisoned by alcohol and other drugs.
It was also noted that the area hospitals have some nurses who have been trained for the SAFE program, i.e. trained in forensic nursing. These are particularly good people to provide that information. It was also noted that nurses who treat alcohol poisoning would be good individuals to invite for presentations to groups of students on campus, for example in Res Life programs. Further, it was noted that there is a “Let’s not meet by accident” program that is presented in the local high schools, and considering that there is an issue for drunk driving as well as of severe alcohol poisoning, something of that nature could also be considered for on campus presentation.
A member of the Committee noted that there is a strong trend among today’s students to “drink yourself silly” and that certainly contributes to these problems. He also noted that when UPD sets up a sobriety checkpoint at the university entrance it is often found that everyone in the car is seriously inebriated, except the driver; that students are very often adhering to the “designated driver” rule, even to the point of having the same totally sober individual drive back and forth from parties several times to get everyone back to campus hopefully in one piece.

Our October meetings were devoted to preparation for our visit to the Downtown Center, to the visit itself, and to our recommendations pursuant to that visit. Here are our “interim” recommendations regarding the University Downtown Center:

The Personal Safety Advisory Committee has been interested in safety issues at and around the University Downtown Center (UDC) since it was in its planning stages; we have received a fair number of communications from various interested parties, and have toured the building and its environs. To some extent it is difficult to disentangle specifically safety concerns from concerns about convenience, for example, and even academic issues. Some have claimed that the location of the UDC is somehow inherently unsafe because it is located in an urban rather than suburban environment, and have pointed to a mugging incident involving a UDC student in support of that claim. But that incident occurred several blocks from the UDC, on the other side of the Susquehanna River, in an area where the City of Binghamton provides free parking. The immediate neighborhood of the UDC includes a Holiday Inn next door, the Broome County Arena across the street, and otherwise the area is all commercial and governmental buildings. The City of Binghamton Police Headquarters is a block away (on the other side of the Arena), and the State Street Strip, a favored area for student partying especially on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, is also about a block away. Students have not generally complained that the area is too dangerous for partying; it should follow that it is not too dangerous for academic pursuits either.

Parking at the UDC clearly is a major issue in the sense that the parking area immediately adjacent to the building is obviously not sufficiently large to accommodate all of the vehicles of faculty, staff, and students who might need to be in the building at a given time, particularly during the daytime hours, when parking is at a premium as it is in almost any downtown area. The city-provided metered parking does extremely little to meet the need. There is a city-owned parking ramp about a block away; that tended to fill up during the day even before the UDC opened, so the city was not prepared to cut a deal for spaces in that location. A little farther away (between two and three city blocks) is the ramp attached to Boscov’s Department Store, and there are regularly more spaces available in that location, so a deal was arranged that permits students who pay an additional $40 (on top of their parking fee for parking on the Vestal campus) may park there at any time as long as they like. Students have complained about this arrangement; it’s hard to sort out how much of the complaint is genuinely about safety, how much it’s about the $40, and how much it’s about the three block walk. The PSAC thinks that the safety issue comes into play after Boscov’s closes, normally at 9 p.m., since until that time there is a significant amount of pedestrian traffic in the area, and one could, if one wished, walk through the store to the ramp.

We believe that safety at the UDC is really quite good, but of course there is always some potential room for improvement. In one respect, any student who is seriously concerned about safety in the neighborhood of the UDC is welcome to park on the Vestal campus and to take the bus to and from the UDC. OCCT stops directly in front of the building, and travel time, depending on the bus one takes, is roughly 12 to 18 minutes each way. The current schedule is available online at http://www.occtransport.com/. From the perspective of parking, there are doubtless a number of ways that marginal improvements can be made, and we list some below.
           
A. Parking at UDC. The PSAC has noted the contribution to the solution of the parking problem by the lottery of 40 parking places in the UDC parking lot, for students.

i) The PSAC supports the  Parking Services study of parking patterns at the UDC to determine whether there is less demand for spaces from faculty and staff in the evening hours, and if so, whether additional spaces (beyond the current 40) might be made available to commuter students during the evening hours. This might possibly be done by coding ID cards as making available the parking space only during a certain period in the evening.
ii) The PSAC recommends continued exploration of making available parking areas to the south of the UDC currently owned by private businesses in the area.

B) Parking at the Boscov’s ramp: Walking from the UDC to the Boscov’s ramp is regarded as somewhat problematic. When we toured the UDC, we were led on a route that took us over a barricade, through a Holiday Inn parking lot, and along a walkway belonging to the Holiday Inn. Although probably the most direct, and possibly the safest, it is not ideal; once there is snow on the ground it will probably be blocked by piles of snow. The “official” and, in the winter, necessary route would follow Washington Street on the city sidewalk, curving around on Hawley Street to Water Street to the ramp. The actual distance is not extreme, by Vestal campus standards, but there is a sense among some of the women that have taken this walk that it exposes them to hassling by people that they would be much less likely to see (or hear from) on the Vestal campus. The lighting is not terribly good for some of the Washington Street portion (there are lights that are not functioning) and in the late evening the part from Main Street to the ramp itself is felt to be particularly dicey in terms of the people who are likely to be hanging out there. Nor is the ramp itself thought to be very safe, particularly in the late evening. Students are told that they can have an escorted walk to the ramp; some students reported that this service was not functioning properly at the beginning of the semester, while those who operate the service say that requests for escorts are extremely rare.

i) We recommend that the lights along Washington Street between Susquehanna Street and the Washington Street Bridge be turned on when it is dark and classes are being held at the UDC, until at least 11 p.m.
ii) We support the suggestion of several people in the City of Binghamton government that blue light phones be installed in various places around the UDC, monitored by City of Binghamton Police. Certainly the walking route between the UDC and the Boscov’s ramp would be a prime location for such phones.
iii) We support the suggestion of Councilman Russo that CCTVs be installed at various places in the downtown area, obviously in our preference along the walking route from the UDC to Boscov’s, and probably south to and across the Washington Street Bridge.
iv) We recommend that Binghamton University study the potential demand for “safe ride” transportation from the UDC to the Boscov’s ramp especially from 9 to 11 p.m. Boscov’s closes at 9, most evenings when class is in session, and by the time students leaving evening classes arrive at the Boscov’s ramp whatever safety or reassurance exists while the store is open is gone.
v) There seems to be some communication problem about where students may park in the ramp; some of them believe that they must use the upper levels of the ramp, while PSAC was told that students may park at any level of the ramp where spaces are open.

C) Bus Service:

• OCCT has regular bus service between the UDC and the Vestal Campus. A schedule is attached in PDF format.
• Broome County Transit (BCT) has a hub about two blocks away from the UDC. These busses tend to depart either from that hub or the Union nearly every half hour (depending on the time of day)

There is doubtless an ongoing question of whether these transportation options adequately serve the needs of students who may need to spend part of the day at each campus.

• We recommend ongoing study of the utilization of the current OCCT structure to see whether it is adequately serving the needs of the students taking courses in the UDC.
• For those who need to come and go via automobile, we recommend that the UDC provide a Ride Board so that students can carpool.

D) We strongly recommend continuing discussions with Mayor Ryan, the Binghamton City Council and the Binghamton Police Department, in ways to make downtown Binghamton, and especially the area near the UDC, as safe and as inviting as possible, both for the sake of our academic program, and for the sake of the City of Binghamton.

We turned to Campus-by-Night on the Vestal Campus on November 8, and on November 29 formulated the report consequent on that visit:

We began by looking at the new bridge to the ITC; crossing the bridge and following the path toward the Campus Pre-School, we discovered that the path becomes very dark, but that it is nevertheless used at night (we met a person walking in the other direction). We recommend adding a couple of lights – it doesn’t need to be very lit, but enough so that one can actually find the path. Wayne Schneider suggests that installing two lights in this area would cost in the neighborhood of $10,000. He is exploring new lighting technology that might be significantly cost-effective in terms of the amount of electricity used.

We toured the ITC building, and found it quite admirable and impressive in many ways. No safety issues appeared.

We visited the Newman House bridge which had been reported by students to be sub-par. It seemed to us to be quite safe; it seems that significant work is planned for this bridge for the summer of 08. In the meantime, the troll who lives under the bridge (we saw his portrait on his wall) wishes everyone happy holidays. We noted the disrepair of the asphalt on the path going up toward Newing, and were assured by Wayne that facilities would give it attention. Subsequent discussion in our meeting of 11/29/07 indicated that it is difficult to get asphalt at this time of year; perhaps the existing asphalt will be ground down to make it even, in the meantime. It was also noted that the path has a serious slope coming down to the bridge (the PSAC has noted this previously also), quite inconveniently especially for women wearing high heels, or when the area gets icy, or both. We recommend that the site planning for East Campus include attention to this pedestrian walkway, since there is a high probability that as East Campus buildings are constructed, there will be even more pedestrian traffic through this corridor.

We visited and admired the new path between Oneida and Marcy halls; in that connection, it was suggested that a sidewalk along the east side Mountainview driveway would improve safety for CIW residents who find it convenient to park in the south Mountainview parking lot. We recommend study of the feasibility of this project; as we have previously said, in principle all driveways on campus should have sidewalks along them. At the 11/29/07 meeting, it was noted that a taxi had been observed driving through this path. That needs to be prevented! [4/17/08: This route continues to be used by motor vehicles including rather large ones. We eagerly look forward to the promised P-Stops.]

We proceeded to the entrance of the Paid Parking lot and walked into the lot past the gates, noting that there was evidence of high pedestrian traffic through this area. Proceeding to the famous Appalachian Trail we noted significant numbers of hikers going in both directions. Blocking this direct route between breakfast and lecture will not be popular. We learned at the 11/29/07 meeting that there are plans to put a 4 foot high fence, similar to one near the Event Center, in this area.

Proceeding to the northeast corner of the paid parking, via the stairway, we noted the somewhat irrational placement of two parking slots directly on top of the path that we would prefer Mountainview (and indeed some CIW) students would take. Some examination of the location yielded the conclusion that this problem could be solved with a net loss of one slot, and a very large net gain in convenience for pedestrians and snow clearing equipment. At the 11/29/07 meeting there was agreement that this would be even more feasible with a system for blocking vehicles from exiting the paid parking at that point and driving out via the CIW corec walkway. [4/17/08: We are still waiting for this situation to be remedied.]

Continuing down the zigzag we noted with satisfaction that some items on campus are attended to simply on the basis that the PSAC intends to visit them – the square railings that had been leaning since sometime last Spring were set back up straight again within the 24 hours before we visited them.

We rode down to the new soccer stadium (Bearcat Stadium) and were suitably impressed by the facilities themselves. We note that the path through the woods from the East Gym parking might become more attractive to some patrons; until now, we have felt that the route along the road to the Event Center was just as close, or near enough to just as close, so that we did not need to light the path through the woods. Some might claim that people need to go to the Event Center anyway to get their tickets for soccer matches, but surely the athletic department would like to sell advance tickets, and holders of advance tickets will readily conclude that parking at the East Gym and walking through the woods is the most efficient way to get to the game. We should consider lights for that path to be turned on whenever the stadium lights are on, and perhaps whenever there’s a major event at the event center. Mr. Schneider’s researches have revealed that appropriate lighting for this project would cost about $58,000 [Later: more like $72,000]. Given plans to use the stadium also for lacrosse and other sports and events during evening hours, this seems like something we are going to have to do.

Given that the Fall semester was largely taken up with concerns with the Downtown Center and our Fall Campus-by-Night, we turned to the demands of the Clery Act most significantly in the Spring Semester. At our February 14 meeting, we outlined strategy for approaching what we took to be the salient issues.

On February 21 we had our first invitee, David Hagerbaumer. He talked about the various offices that report to him and their challenges and responses. He talked about the program for sexual assault education for fraternity men; programs related to alcohol usage control, risk management, and hazing, particularly in the Greek letter community but not limited – he pointed out that other groups might easily be involved in any of these risky behaviors, and possibly with less input from university officials. Greek letter organizations are in danger of losing their charters, but the problem that results is that they may continue as underground organizations. Judicial legislation has attempted to keep up with these problems.

He mentioned the roles of David Husch, in OCC, and Milton Chester, in Judicial Affairs. Hagerbaumer mentioned the NYS legislation 129a which holds student organizations responsible for the effects of their practices. That legislation involves certification of organizations by the university. In response to questions Hagerbaumer talked about issues of regulating off campus parties – concern was expressed about Facebook advertising, and Hagerbaumer admitted that we don’t have as good a handle on that as we do some other forms of advertising. We also talked about cab safety: excessive numbers of passengers for example.

On February 28, our guest was Dave Husch, from OCC. He discussed our role in the Community Coalition, for example the preparations for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade (which, as it happened, went off quite well except for the very wintery weather). He pointed out that campus judicial charges of off campus students are usually contingent on arrest, and police do not necessarily arrest students that we might consider appropriate for judicial action.

Mr. Husch compared policies at various other universities: for example, Syracuse has a BYOB policy. Many schools outlaw punch bowls for Greek organizations. This is an issue that we clearly need to do something about, since there certainly have been serious incidents involving either high percentage alcohol or other chemicals included in punch bowls, resulting in either unexpectedly extreme drunkenness or sickness, in addition to the stupor intended by the perpetrators. We need to hold the host responsible for the contents and effects of refreshments served.

Mr. Husch also discussed the role of landlords, noting that some were quite involved in dealing with events, but that others were not. The university needs to work with both landlords and police. He pointed out that people with licenses to serve alcohol are offered training by the liquor authority; for people who put on house parties, and who are not selling alcoholic beverages, this is not an option. Control of those activities ultimately comes down to the police.

Mr. Husch went on to discuss hazing, a lively issue at this time of the year (Greek rushing season). He described the outreach education that the university carries on with the recognized organizations, while realizing that not all organizations are “recognized” and thus some are not reached by those efforts.

Turning to the question of safety of off-campus residences, Mr. Husch called attention to the OCC housing list, and the existence of certificates of compliance. He pointed out that some landlords are in compliance with some units, and not others, and that essentially they offer students a “bait and switch” routine. Returning to the issue of parties, he noted that city-initiated lockdowns are a possible, if last, resort.

On March 5 we turned to structural issues on the Vestal campus, specifically plans for the East Campus project, including immediate plans to begin the building of the first structure. Karren Bee-Donohoe elicited a lively discussion of various aspects of the project, including impact on parking and pedestrian routes.

With the help of a map marking out various campus projects the Committee discussed impacts of the extension of high-temperature lines, especially where those cross roadways, and other matters.

On March 13 we reviewed the result of the last several meetings. In relation to the East Campus plans, we noted that there have been discussions about installation of wiring for land line telephones in view of the ubiquity of cell phones. There was a general feeling that many students believe the presence of a land line phone is a safety issue, and the committee, without taking a formal vote on the question, seemed to agree with that assessment. UPD agrees that a primary consideration is the 911 issue: if a student dials 911 on an on-campus land line phone, UPD is alerted; dialing 911 on a cell phone will not do that – in fact it’s hard to predict WHAT 911 on a cell phone will get you. There are other issues, but it seems to us that that one is sufficient to demand the presence of one land line phone per room or suite in all campus residences.

In view of the discussions shared with Dave Hagerbaumer and Dave Husch, we discussed issues surrounding alcohol use and abuse at some length. One of the issues is that of where police reports of off-campus agencies might go – if police do not report, there cannot be on-campus repercussions. How much more do we want to learn from local police agencies? How much more communication should there be? We had extensive discussion of the sorts of incidents that might occasion a visit from Binghamton or Johnson City police, and whether campus officials needed to be officially notified of the disposition of all those cases.

There is of course concern from students about when exactly campus judicial proceedings kick in. We are aware of considerations dealing with affiliated groups such as Greek letter organizations, but what about unaffiliated groups? What about random groups of students? How does the student code of conduct apply to them? These questions appear to anticipate the visit of Milton Chester from Judicial Affairs. Issues discussed included alcohol abuse, sexual abuse (usually associated), and ways to lessen the dangers. We noted that for entering students, who most need the information, there is already information overload, and we don’t necessarily reach them. Still, having adequate information provided, particularly on sexual abuse, at orientation, seems to us to be important.

It was suggested that students might be able to do alcohol.edu during the summer, at home, at least on an optional basis. This suggestion seemed to us to deserve serious consideration.

We also noted the practice of joint visits by UPD and other campus officials with representatives of local police departments to various units where students live. These have in the past been well-received, since they were opportunities to communicate helpful information to students living off campus. We expect that these visits will occur again in the future.

The question of registration of taxis was raised – UPD believes that there are issues since the roads on campus are “public highways” and in principle anyone can drive on them. On the other hand, we can check vehicles for overloading, and for the inebriation of drivers, and checkpoints of this nature have been done fairly regularly in the past, and will be done again.

We also reviewed several issues in relation to the Spring Campus-by-Night, with the results summarized below.

On March 20 we reviewed, briefly, the Vestal Parkway Protest of March 18. We were reminded that there is no really convenient walking path that is both safe and legal between University Plaza and the University, that students clearly imagined that walking on the Vestal Parkway is the natural way to go to University Plaza. Although students can walk on the Vestal streets via the Newman House bridge, even those are not all that safe, since there are no sidewalks on that route. We considered opening a route to University Plaza via the ITC (see more on that below).

Our guest for this meeting was Milton Chester, director of Judicial Affairs. He distributed copies of the Rules of Student Conduct and we also received copies of “Talking with Students about Sexual Assault etc.” distributed by the University Counseling Center. We agreed that the first couple of weeks of a student’s university experience are of very serious concern – off campus parties frequently involve dangerous punch bowls, isolation of some guests, and the like. The problem, as Mr. Chester sees it, is getting evidence of these activities – nobody admits that they do these things, nobody tells on others. Even if the Binghamton Police are called, they don’t respond the way that UPD does – they don’t give Judicial Affairs what is needed sometimes. When there is clearly criminal activity, the Broome County DA office often wants their case to move first, before Campus Judicial gets involved. There are jurisdictional issues – to be sure, 90% of the time we cooperate well. But local police agencies do not routinely refer cases to judicial.

OCC is concerned with accountability, prevention and intervention.

We asked what results could be reported from cases of this general type; Mr. Chester replied that there are 10 to 15 suspensions per year, and a maximum of one expulsion per year.

We asked about Hazing: Mr. Chester responded that this arises both in Greek letter groups and others. Athletes are a particularly worrisome group for hazing. And these events occur largely off campus and are not easy to find out about, let alone control.

We discussed the possibility of encouraging anonymous whistle-blowing, possibly via a website. An appropriate website could also be educational.

Student organizations often are occasions for “gang behavior”, with all that that implies for surrendered responsibility, peer pressure, irrationality, enforcement of secrecy via threats expressed or implied, manipulation of the strong desire to “belong,” and so on. Mr. Chester turned to the question of fake ids, pointing out that students are not sufficiently aware of its illegality, and the serious, even huge, consequences of presenting fake or altered ids.
We went on to discuss aspects of policy flexibility, the process of adjudication of cases, and current review of policies by Judicial Affairs.

Subsequent meetings were concerned especially with Spring Campus-by-Night. The report is appended below.

Continuing with the “Clery Act” issues, on April 17 we turned to formulating our recommendations.

• The PSAC recommends offering persons serving Judicial Affairs as hearing officers and charging administrators specialized training in dealing with sexual abuse and domestic violence cases, provided by an out-of-house agency.
• The PSAC recommends that incoming students receive a more strongly worded warning about the possibility of sexual assault, especially at off-campus locations during the first few weeks of the Fall semester. The warning need not be extensive, but it does need to be specific about the dangers of punch bowls and unattended drink glasses, and the need to have an effective and reliable buddy system at off-campus parties.

Campus-by-Night April 3, 2008; recommendations and review April 17, 2008.

Items to be examined, with comments after examination:

• Access to Bingham Hall during construction; effects of work zone perimeter fence.
  
  We looked at the area. There is a narrow pathway along Bingham Hall with gravel, at this point. The Chair revisited the area after dark and found that the light on the southwest corner was functioning, but the light on the northwest corner was out. This needs to be fixed.

• Infirmary walkway.
  
  We didn’t see that there was a problem. It is possible that students have been attempting to walk directly across the road from the rear access to Seneca Hall; to be sure, it is necessary to go a bit north to stay on sidewalk. Or students may have been following an path from Newing, though there is a paved path from Newing. That area will of course be revised in the development of East Campus.

• ITC path to University Plaza?
  
  We looked at several of the (unsanctioned) paths from the ITC and NYSEG parking lots eastward toward University Plaza. Clearly at this point a pedestrian or bicyclist could totally avoid the Parkway by using one of these paths; since there does not seem to be a large number of people taking advantage of these routes, we’re probably best off just taking note of this fact.

• Path through the woods from traffic circle to Bearcat Stadium and the Event Center.
  
  We visited this path. Wayne Schneider pointed out that there is an estimate of $52,000 to install lights along this path. Given that parking in the East Gym lot is extremely attractive for those attending events at Bearcat Stadium, and also rather attractive for those going from East Gym parking to the Event Center, sooner or later we’re going to have to invest that money in this project.

• Speeding in road between Science 4 and West Gym.
  
  UPD points out that they often hang out there looking for speeders; until a redesign of the road is carried out, it’s hard to know what more we can do about that. See below on redesign parameters. 

• Intersection by Maintenance building.
  
  One faculty member suggested a four-way stop at this intersection. UPD resists that idea. A partial fix would be to put the bus stops in that area inside the brain, rather than outside as they are now, cutting down the amount of pedestrian traffic crossing the intersection. That would be particularly helpful in reducing pedestrian traffic between the southwest and southeast corners, where pedestrian crossing is particularly dangerous (and not protected by a zebra). At the northwest-northeast crossing there are two islands, and zebra markings, making pedestrian crossing a great deal easier. The specific bus stops we are talking about are the one across, north, from the Maintenance Building, and the one across from Academic 1. If buses were to turn left at the intersection in question, with a bus stop near the west end of Science 3, that would reduce a certain amount of the pedestrian traffic through this intersection.

• Lighting in Plaza between Science 3 and Science 4.
  
  A member of the university community point out that this area is pretty dark. We agree, and we determined that the reason for that darkness is the fact that quite a few of the lights in the area are not functioning. This should not be a big deal to fix.

• Path and staircases from loading dock of Science 3 to tower entrance of Science 2; washouts.
  
  A member of the university community mentioned these problems to us; we think that recent work in the area has remedied them.

• Academic 1 Bus Stop Curb.
  
  We took a look at this problem: it seems that anything that we put on top of that curb to warn people about the curb is eventually mowed down by a vehicle. Possibly reflective paint on the curb itself would do some good? We also think that the university should look seriously at the possibility of having all bus traffic proceed clockwise around the brain, with this bus stop moved to the other side of the road, the side with Academic 1, rather than the side by Lot M. With proper design of a new bus stop on the east side of the road, this problem would disappear, and we would have reduced pedestrian traffic across the road at this point.

• Vehicular traffic on the path by Cleveland and Hinman Dining Hall to the road between Hinman and Lot M; vehicular traffic on the walkway between the road between Hinman and Lot M and Lot M itself; vehicular traffic on the path between Mountainview and CIW. Vehicle traffic on walkways is an ongoing, and sometimes very serious, problem in several areas on campus. These are three of the most dangerous places, because these paths are just wide enough for a full-size vehicle to drive on, leaving no room for any pedestrians who might be trying to walk in the area. Wayne Schneider suggests that we could install “P-Stop” barriers – these are posts with a steel tubing “P” at the top that could leave enough space for GEM car to get through, but not a full-size vehicle. Should it be necessary for maintenance to put a larger vehicle through, the “P” could be unlocked and turned to make a wider access. This sounds like a good idea, and if possible would doubtless be a good idea at each end of the paths noted. Signage (“No Vehicular Traffic”) would be a minimal response to the problem, and probably wouldn’t do the job.
• Sidewalk along East Access Road (between Hinman and Lot M).
  
  We have previously recommended a sidewalk in this area, and we continue to note that it should be constructed. We understand that this project is waiting on moving the lights from one side of the road to the other.
  
  
• Clearview Path.
  
  We noted in meeting and discussed the unsanctioned path between Hillside and Clearview, but did not visit it on this campus-by-night tour.
  
  
• Walkway between admin and parking garage.
  
  This was noted by a member of the campus community, before current work in the vicinity of the administration building began. The path in question is currently closed off and will be redone as part of the current work.
  
  
• In our meeting on April 3 we also discussed issues related to access to the G level of the Library complex, particularly in relation to 24-hour opening of the Bartle Library. Essentially in view of the configuration of the library, at any time that the library is open, necessarily a good deal of the rest of the building must also be open.
  
  
• We note that Mountainview students have requested upgrading of what we call the Appalachian Trail, and that this request has been denied.
  
  
• We note that Hillside and Susquehanna have requested repairs to the walkways and stairways in those communities, and that this request has been (more or less) approved; a visit to the area in the Fall semester might well be in order.

Committee Members: