Temporary cameras have been installed around the lagoon at UC Santa Barbara with an emergency permit granted by the California Coastal Commission following student concerns about safety. 

The emergency permit is in effect for 90 days, but the commission is “likely” to approve a permit for permanent lighting early this summer.

For Evan Sussman, first president pro-tempore of Associated Students, it’s just the first step in addressing a decades-long issue. 

“It’s rewarding, but I take it with a grain of salt because the work is not finished yet,” Sussman said. “The goal, and the goal since the beginning, has been long-term lighting.”

The 90-day permit includes a pilot program in which five cameras will be active along the trail around the lagoon, and 60 days for the university to research environmental impacts and finalize what permanent lighting would look like in order to apply for a permit for permanent lighting. 

The recent push for added safety measures began after a woman was forced to the ground and a man attempted to sexually assault her near the lagoon in October, but there have been incidents reported in the area for decades. 

The commission has been aware of sexual assaults occurring around the lagoon since 1999, according to a staff report about the ecological importance of the lagoon. 

The report indicated that there had been reports of rapes, attempted rapes, molestations, flashings, robberies and attempted robberies near the lagoon. 

In 2024, a man reportedly attempted to kidnap a first-year student while she was walking along the lagoon trail.

Enri Lala, internal vice president of UCSB Associated Students, said the progress for safety lighting demonstrates what can be done when students initiate an idea and work with officials to make it happen. 

“We’re not thinking solely of students here,” Lala said. “We’re thinking of visitors from the local region who want to visit the campus that’s part of the regional identity and feel safe on it. We know for sure that there are high-schoolers that visit. I’ve even heard middle-schoolers who go to Isla Vista to enjoy the area because they live nearby, and we want as safe an environment as possible.”

Following the October incident, Sussman and Lala flew to Sacramento to advocate for permanent lighting in front of the commission. 

“I think we’ve been placed in this situation, because of how dire the crimes happening out there were, that we cannot rest fully contently, know that we’ve taken all the steps needed for this, until that final installation is there,” Lala said.

As another safety measure, a campus safety officer station will be placed on the Commencement Green by the lagoon during UCSB’s spring quarter on the weekends, until the end of the school year. The station will be funded by the Associated Students Senate, Office of the Internal Vice President, and the Associated Students entity Take Back the Night.

The next steps will be up to Josh Rohmer, director of capital and physical planning, and Shari Hammond, associate director of campus planning and design, who will need to submit a development plan and hire researchers to look into how the lighting could affect wildlife, according to Sussman. 

Once they file for the permit, it goes to the California Coastal Commission, which could take up to two months to review and possibly approve it. At that point, the lighting will be dependent on funding, which Sussman said Associated Students should fund. 

The permanent lighting is expected to be small downward facing, similar to what is already installed around Manzanita Village, the student residential community near the lagoon.

The lagoon is home to swans, brown pelicans and other wildlife. Environmentalists often worry that lighting could disturb wildlife, but Sussman argued that adding lighting would help make students and the community feel safer. 

“It protects not only wildlife, which has had those protections for decades, but it now is protecting students who have not had those protections,” Sussman said. “It’s a continuous effort to appeal to both sides and allow them to live in harmony.”