The journey began in the Valley.

Sixteen people – students and administrators – marched up the Hill and back down searching for dark alleys, busted lights and dangerous spots as part of a campus safety walk.

Members of the Student Government Association, Facilities Management, campus police and Gene Tice, vice president of Student Affairs and Campus Services, roamed campus after dark Monday searching for unsafe areas.

SGA President Jamie Sears CQ said student safety is a priority.

“We walk all over campus and look for places that are unsafe to walk due to the sidewalks, lack of sidewalks or lighting,” Sears said. “We want to make sure the campus is safe at night for students to walk.”

Tice said proper lighting on campus was a focus for the group.

“We tried to look at existing lighting and the way it has been maintained,” Tice said. “We had problems with existing lights out and then tried to identify areas that need additional lighting.”

Tice and others who participated in the safety walk found badly lit areas in some on-campus parking lots and in areas near Cherry Hall, Gilbert Hall, Grise Hall and Downing University Center.

Crosswalks were another topic of interest.

“There were some discussions about traffic flow and pedestrian crosswalks,” Facilities Management director Doug Ault said. “Those are some things that will be addressed in the future. It’s just a question of what priority they take in the scheme of things.”

SGA has conducted a campus safety walk every semester for the past three years. Louisville senior Mark RawlingsCQ, a member of SGA judicial council, has been present for all of them.

He said the walk is a positive way for students and the administration to work toward the same goal.

“I think it’s a good idea to keep doing the walks, if for no other reason than to identify lights that have gone out,” Rawlings said.

While a number of problems were found during Monday’s safety walk, funding for repairs may be hard to come by.

“Obviously money is always a concern,” Tice said. “There is no way we can do everything at once, but every year we have opportunities.”

Reach Jessica Sasseen at [email protected].