If you live on campus or are involved in NSU athletics, you may be familiar with the soccer complex that is located next to the Mako and Leo Goodwin residence halls. It’s a huge sports field where students can gather to cheer on the Sharks during their games. Because it has huge stadium lights, people can even gather for nighttime games and events.
While these lights are useful during the game, there are plenty of times that they remain on when no one is on the field. People living in Mako residence hall on the end of the north side might be especially aware of this, because the lights are extremely bright and sometimes remain on from the previous night’s game to the early hours of the morning.
These lights cascade through anything attempting to block them out, including the cheap blinds the residence hall provides, illuminating whole bedrooms. I can’t speak for Goodwin, but in Mako residence hall there is no fixture to attach your own curtains, so students are forced to hope that the plastic blinds will be able to filter enough light out. Unfortunately, they often do not.
If you’re a student who can’t sleep unless it’s dark, this is a huge problem. I wish I could say that the lights aren’t that bad; like a night light, or something like that. However, the light shines directly into the rooms that lay parallel to the field, lighting up the entire room as if a dim lamp had been turned on inside. The fact that the lights remain on, even sometimes past 2 a.m. or later, keeps students awake and prevents them from getting the darkness they need for a truly restful sleep.
Even if the lights didn’t keep students awake, keeping the huge stadium lights on past when they’re needed is a huge waste of energy. While I assume the lights remain on a timer, there must be some way that when people exit the soccer complex they can turn them off. It seems like a waste of energy and money to keep lights on when nobody is using or even tending to the soccer field. I can’t imagine it’s cheap to run those huge lights for more than four hours at a time, especially if people only need them for an hour or two.
Running those huge stadium lights when nobody else is in the soccer complex is a huge waste of both student energy and electric energy. I truly can’t imagine a scenario where it is beneficial to keep them running for no reason; I can only assume that one of the many reasons our tuition is so high is to pay the bills for keeping the giant lights on.
