A friend and I walked down to the L. Dale Mitchell Baseball Park a few weeks ago to see the Sooner baseball team whip the UCA bears. It was a great game.

When we started walking back to the South Oval, we stopped by the Kraettli apartments to see our wonderful OU cousin.

We found her apartment in the darkness and realized how dark it truly was. The lights from the baseball park could be seen from parts of Kraettli and helped to light up the dark area, as it’s right across the street.

But what about when those lights aren’t on, like in the winter?

I flashed back to my freshman year when my suitemate and I used to go to Kraettli to party - I mean, to learn about international cultures through informal socialization.

I specifically remember in December walking from the dorms to Kraettli through the dark, snowy wooded area between the tennis courts and Kraettli and remarking, “Whoa. It’s so dark out here.”

We laughed it off and just kept walking.

Nothing happened, as it usually doesn’t. We felt safe, despite the obvious scary-movie context of the situation that lay before us. We felt safe on OU’s campus, as do most people with whom I talk.

Students from big cities in the states as well as around the world seem to consistently feel comfortable with OU’s safety record and the overwhelmingly decent people that go to our university and make up the Norman community.

However, a feeling of safety sometimes allows people to let their guards down, and that’s when bad things can happen. The lack of lighting, and blue emergency telephones around Kraettli, is baffling and unsafe.

After we left our friend’s apartment we noticed a blue emergency telephone inside of the Traditions East gate and gate near the law school. Both of these are on the opposite side of the street from Traditions and probably of zero use unless one ran to the phones in those locations.

As we kept walking, we noticed a third blue emergency telephone on Timberdell Road.

Many exchange and international students who live at Kraettli, either for a semester or year, don’t have cars and walk or bike around campus, especially when the CART buses aren’t running.

More blue emergency telephones, as well as more lighting, should be added to the Kraettli apartment complex in the near future, even if the apartments will be eventually phased out for new housing.

OU is fortunate to have President David Boren and UOSA president Katie Fox who both care deeply about the international community on our campus.

OU Housing and Food does a decent job of caring for the freshmen and upper classmen who populate the dorms and Traditions complex, but that’s not where the OU family ends. OU’s family extends beyond those students and extends not only around the country and world, but further down on Jenkins to Kraettli.

It’s imperative, if Kraettli is still going to be used as the predominant place to house International students, that it is upgraded with more blue emergency telephones and lighting so that inhabitants of Kraettli have the same amenities as their peers elsewhere on campus.

I hope imminent UOSA President Katie Fox will work with the administration to create a viable solution to this solvable problem so that exchange students for years to come can live in the glow of the blue lights of safety.

-Kayle Barnes, professional writing senior.