Bergeson Bill to Light Up Campus Crime Areas Signed

Legislation to ensure that future state university and college parking lots and walkways have enough lighting to deter violent crimes at night has been signed into law by Gov. George Deukmejian.

The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), was prompted by the 1986 murder of 23-year-old Robin Brandley at the Saddleback College campus in Mission Viejo. Brandley, a student disc jockey for KSBR-FM, was stabbed while she walked to her car and bled to death in a dimly lit parking lot.

“Tragic stories like Robin Brandley’s are becoming far too common,” Bergeson said. “One out of five college students is a victim of a violent crime. It is imperative that a lighting standard be set to do away with poorly lighted school walkways and parking lots. This piece of legislation is a necessary first step to deter crime at our college campuses.”

The year before Brandley’s death, another Saddleback student was attacked on campus and abducted by two men from another campus parking lot. Her abductors beat her, stripped her and dumped her naked but still alive on a freeway off-ramp six hours later. In the past four years, at least three other women have reported being sexually assaulted on the campus.

“We are delighted that the governor signed the bill,” said Genelle Reilley, the mother of Robbin Brandley.

Since her daughter’s death, Reilley has visited about 15 state university and college campuses at night to determine the type of lighting in parking lots and walkways and found the situation frightening.

“Not once did we see a campus policeman patrolling the campus. The lighting on all the campuses was very poor,” she said, adding that many students are so afraid that they refuse to go on campus at night for classes. “Our society is so violent that good lighting and police patrols should be a No. 1 priority,” Reilley said.

The new law directs the state architect to work with state police, the Department of General Services, the California Building Standards Commission and the public to develop the best possible lighting standard for parking lots by June 30, 1991. All future schools built by the state will have to abide by the new standard.

Bergeson said “murders, rapes, assaults and vandalism are all on the rise at our institutions of higher education. Because there is no standard, lighting on walkways and parking lots is not a high priority. Campus safety and security continue to be of the utmost importance to our college students, faculty and parents. These problems will continue to exist as long as we tolerate colleges with inadequate lighting.”