After a recent attempted sexual assault at the lagoon on the UC Santa Barbara campus, students are taking action to install safety lighting around the lagoon. 

With the lagoon considered an environmentally sensitive habitat area, the university would have to get permission from the California Coastal Commission to install any lighting. 

Earlier this month, Associated Students leaders Evan Sussman and Enri Lala flew to Sacramento to speak about the issue during general public comment at the California Coastal Commission meeting.

“I think our job is to protect all students, to ensure that students are receiving fair and equitable treatment on campus, and that includes student safety. When there is a blatantly obvious problem on campus, which is the lagoon, which has not been been lit up for since its time on campus, there’s a simple solution in my mind, which is to add lighting,” Sussman told Noozhawk.

In October, the UC Police Department reported that an unknown man forced a woman to the ground at night and attempted to sexually assault her near the lagoon.

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

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. 

On Nov. 5, UCPD held its annual lighting safety walk, when students, administrators and community members document safety concerns around campus, noting dark areas or overgrown plants. For the first time ever, the lagoon was included for the walk.

“They found gaps where people could be hiding, which has been reported,” Sussman said. “But it’s not just students who are concerned; campus administration and UCPD also see this as a huge problem on campus that not only concerns student safety but student well-being.”

The lagoon is home to numerous swans, brown pelicans and other wildlife. Environmentalists often worry that lighting could disturb wildlife, but students argue that adding lighting not only would improve safety but ensure coastal access for residents and visitors. 

“If students or visitors on campus are afraid of being physically assaulted and traumatized by being close to the coast, they will not access that coast,” Lala said.

The lighting would be small downward facing, similar to what is already installed around Manzanita village, the student residential community near the lagoon. Students also hope to add blue emergency phones around the lagoon, which are already at numerous locations around campus.

Lala and Sussman said they spoke at the California Coastal Commission meeting so that the commissioners have a better understanding of the issue when they eventually review the permit to add lighting.

They hope a permit will be submitted by the end of the year, with the goal to have lighting around the lagoon by the start of the 2026-27 academic year. However, Sussman said it’s up to campus administration to actually file for a permit.

Looking ahead, Sussman said they’ve also noticed a need for road repavement to make it easier for emergency responders to get to the area. 

Kayla Goodin, a fourth-year student and internal chair for Take Back the Night, a student organization dedicated to ending sexual violence, said lighting won’t be enough to ensure student safety.

“It’s a long-term cultural change that needs to happen at this school,” Goodin said. “At this school, specifically, the sexual assault culture that is here is extremely scary and harms a lot of students every single year.”

Goodin said Take Back the Night is focused on educating students on consent and bystander intervention, as well as uplighting the voices of survivors. 

“Taking part in projects like this will help deter things from happening, but we’re also focused on the cultural aspect of this problem, because that’s the much larger thing that’s going on on this campus,” Goodin said.

Take Back the Night recently created a form through which students can share any unsafe experiences at the lagoon.