Plans accelerated after last week’s attempted kidnapping on
campus
Gilroy – Plans for new campus lighting have been accelerated after two men chased a Gavilan student across campus last week, school officials said. Though the student escaped, the incident – dubbed by sheriffs an attempted kidnapping – has led administrators to move night classes and double nighttime security. Flyers describing the suspects paper the campus.
“After the incident, we’re figuring out the fastest way” to light classroom buildings near the football fields, from which the student fled, said Jan Bernstein Chargin, Gavilan’s director of public information. She estimated that lighting would be installed within “the next few months” around far-flung CJ500, and along the main walkway within a year.
Measure E, passed in 2004, provides for improved campus lighting, installed in phases as buildings are remodeled. The overall process will take eight years, Chargin said. An FAQ about Measure E, posted on Gavilan’s Web site, lists air conditioning, disabled access, fire safety and upgrading wiring among its priorities. Though lighting is not explicitly listed on the site, Chargin said a brighter campus was an integral part of the plan.
“One of the reasons that exterior lighting was part of Bond Measure E was because of many student comments requesting better lighting,” said Chargin.
Raul Iradillas, 29, is in his third week at Gavilan College, taking night classes to improve his English. Since last week’s incident, he avoids walking alone.
“It’s too dark,” said Iradillas, as he walks along a shadowy pathway to the parking lot. “All the ladies are scared about it.”
Board member Tom Breen agrees.
“The most critical thing … is the lighting,” Breen said, recalling his own days as a Gavilan student. “The lighting that’s there had been there for decades, and it needs a more modern approach.”
Breen said he hoped that parking areas would be well-lit by June 2007.
Last week’s incident is rare at placid Gavilan College. Burglary and liquor-law violations are the most common criminal offenses on campus, according to statistics compiled by the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) and the Student Right to Know Report, posted on the Gavilan Web site. In 2004, 10 burglaries occurred, and from 2002 to 2004, there were three aggravated assaults on campus, according to the OPE.
“Overall, it’s been a very, very safe campus,” said Chargin. “The majority of crimes reported tend to be things like ‘Wallet taken from car that was unlocked.'”
Currently, students can dial ’10’ on any campus phone to reach security, said Chargin. Phones are located inside classrooms, but Measure E project manager Casey Michaelis is considering an intercom system or outdoor emergency phones, she added.
By night, the roughly 73-acre campus is patrolled by two security guards, who look for “anything that’s unusual or suspicious,” said Chargin, such as “people sitting in a car but not doing anything, or people looking into cars, or looking into classrooms.”
Because Gavilan’s campus is open to the public, non-students can’t be barred from campus. Nor should they be, said Breen.
“We’re not going to put a fence around the campus,” he said, but “security will be more aware of what goes on.”
