Group annually searches CMU campus for burnt-out lights, dark spots
Facility Management staff and others found eight lights on campus not working Tuesday during their annual campus walkthrough.
The group takes a tour through campus at night once a year to check the 1,337 lights for the students’ safety.
Staff from FM, a Central Michigan University police officer and two Student Government Association representatives walked through campus in search of burnt-out lights and areas that may be too dark.
Linda Slater, director of plant engineering and planning, said the walkthrough is done once a year and to check areas that students mention as being of concern.
“It’s important to have student input. We check the spaces that students feel are important. The main goal is just to improve safety,” Slater said.
Mike LeMay, supervisor of electrical and maintenance mechanics, said he has two people who work full-time for lighting and look for burnt-out lights on a regular basis.
“I come in once a week for inventory and look at a quarter of campus. Usually, there are two to four lights out every week. We put work orders in for them to be fixed right away,” LeMay said.
Slater said the eight burnt-out lights is average.
Everything on campus is well-lit — it is mainly about making things brighter, said Stanley Martin, journeyman maintenance mechanic for FM.
The walkthrough
The group takes measure of the amount of light in a given area during a walkthrough. They look for the minimum light standard, Slater said.
“We have a device that measures in foot candles. This tells us the amount of light in an area and if it is too dark,” she said.
A foot candle is defined as the amount of illumination the inside surface of a 1-foot radius sphere would be receiving if there were a uniform point source of one candela in the exact center of the sphere.
FM also has to make sure there is not too much light in a given area. Steve Lawrence, associate vice president of Facilities Management, said lights sometimes have to be changed to comply with city ordinance.
“We have to use a special type of fixture in order to not cause light pollution. The lights must point down and not light up the sky,” Lawrence said.
There are 437 of the new type of light fixtures on campus. Martin said the new light fixtures are being used to comply with the city ordinance.
“The light fixtures point directly down and are also capable of covering a much larger area because of that,” he said. “The lights also have a very long life. They last about 8,000 hours.”
New projects
Slater said the walkthrough also is used to identify projects for the following summer.
“It works well with the project cycle,” she said.
There were a few areas with new lights that were identified last fall as dark areas — Warriner Mall and on Washington Street, LeMay said.
After the walkthrough, it was concluded the campus was well-lit in most places. Slater said there are five areas that will be assessed for future projects — add one or two lights at the northwest corner of Powers Hall, an additional light pole at the southeast corner of Brooks Hall, one or two lights for the paths on the southwest corner of Brooks Hall, additional lighting along the west side of the Engineering and Technology Building and completing the lighting of Warriner Mall, including the sidewalk along the west side of Sloan Hall.
