Following a recent case of alleged sexual assault in a campus parking lot, students have begun to speak up about how safe they feel (or don’t feel) on campus. 
The university has been working on increasing security, lighting and camera coverage in parking lots since 2019, according to Clemson University Police.
6.6% of all national violent crime occurs in parking lots and garages with over 45,000 cases in 2020 alone, according to the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer. 
“I feel very unsafe walking back from the resident parking lot to my dorm; it is almost as if I am taking a risk just trying to walk back safely,” said Mya Dawkins, freshman physics major. “After hearing other people’s stories about the parking lots, I really wish that they took more precautions, like having more blue lights accessible and increased lighting.”
The lower section of the R-1 parking lot, where the reported incident occurred, has no lights within the lot, only on the outer edges. The lot also does not have any emergency blue light call centers within viewing distance, according to observations made by The Tiger.
Other areas with sparse lighting include the hill that divides the upper and lower levels of the R-1 parking lot and the area on the corner of the Avenue of Champions and Perimeter Road.
In response to previous safety concerns, an ongoing project has aimed to increase campus safety standards and lighting in parking lots and around campus, according to University Police.
“Since 2019, there has been a phased project to continually enhance all aspects of safety ranging from video enhancements, additional staffing and lighting upgrades,” said Chief Greg Mullen of Clemson University Police. “These efforts have led to an expansion of the video coverage across campus, including parking lots.”
Mullen said that they have, so far, been successful in these implementations, increasing the number of cameras in parking lots from 1,200 cameras in 2019 to over 3,000 today. Other steps have been taken as well to enhance campus parking lot safety beyond video footage and camera installation.
“We have added a Public Safety Operation Center which is staffed with a security specialist 24 hours per day. These additional camera views and staff allow for proactive monitoring of sites to identify any suspicious activity which is then communicated to officers for response,” said Mullen.
“This new addition to the safety and security camera system transitions it from a passive to active crime prevention tool.”
In October 2021, it was announced that Phase II of the project geared towards increasing camera coverage would begin.
“At the end of this project, a substantial number of Clemson’s parking locations will have available camera coverage,” said Mullen. “Clemson’s capital project guidelines have been updated to require video components in any new construction project or major modifications on campus. Any new project also includes lighting requirements based on industry standards.”
Dan Hoffman, director of Parking and Transportation Services, is in charge of lighting in parking lots specifically.
“CUPD regularly patrols the parking lots as do our Parking Enforcement staff,” said Hoffman. “If our staff sees anything, they are instructed to report directly to CUPD. I have been here [for] 10 years and am not aware of any incidents that have had to be reported. My understanding is that CUPD responds to blue light calls which, thankfully, there are not very many that I am even aware of.”
University Police have set aside $200,000 for lighting improvements for the public safety budget to bring all areas of campus up to industry standards, according to a review of the budget. Thus far, they have replaced standard lighting with brighter, more long-lasting LED bulbs, as well as adding more lights in total.
Moving forward, Phase II of the campus lighting and safety project will continue to implement increased safety measures outside of cameras and lighting with the support from the CUPD to take individual precautions.
“There are many aspects to safety. It requires individual responsibility which requires each person to be alert and aware of their surroundings. It also involves each of us being active bystanders and reporting suspicious activities or circumstances.” said Mullen.
Caroline Elswick, News Editor contributed to the reporting of this story.