UC Santa Barbara Lagoon, West Campus in the Dark Again

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This article was underwritten in part by the Mickey Flacks Journalism Fund for Social Justice, a proud, innovative supporter of local news. To make a contribution go to sbcan.org/journalism_fund.

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For more than two months, tall poles topped with lights and security cameras operated near UC Santa Barbara’s Campus Lagoon and on its West Campus. UCSB installed the lights and cameras — five 20-foot, solar-powered apparatuses — after the California Coastal Commission granted an emergency permit on January 30 to deter crime in dark parts of campus. Those lights remained in place until April 5. 

A driving force for installing lighting in the area came from members of UCSB’s student government, including Associated Students President Pro-Tempore Evan Sussman. Sussman and his colleague Enri Lala, the Associated Students Internal Vice President, traveled to Sacramento in November to speak at a California Coastal Commission meeting, advocating for the emergency permits. 

“What really motivated that was a sexual assault attempt in October of this school year,” Sussman said. 

In October 2025, UCSB’s Police Department reported an attempted sexual assault near the campus lagoon, wherein an unknown man forced a woman to the ground. 

The report was one of several attempted assaults in the area in recent years. In April 2024, a student reported escaping an attempted abduction and sexual assault on Campus Point. After the October crime, police reported another attempted sexual assault on West Campus, near the university’s stables in December. Each instance has similarities — a stranger in dark clothing forcing a victim to the ground in attempted assault. 

Along with these reported crimes, UCPD has documented nine thefts, four batteries, three cases of arson, and one suspicious death since 2021. 

Sussman said after the October assault, he began reading Coastal Commission documents — and that the commission had acknowledged the sexual assaults and thefts in the lagoon area as early as the ’90s. 

Internal Vice President Enri Lala said that while the student government is not in the habit of getting involved with policing, the repeated assaults and crimes meant ignoring the issue was unacceptable. 

“This was just … such a blatant example of a security concern that had not been addressed on campus that we felt we had to get involved,” he said. 

After the Coastal Commission meeting, UCSB filed for an emergency permit. Sussman and Lala said that they worked with UCPD to get the lights and cameras set up.

Kayla Goodin is a recent graduate who spent three years working as the internal chair for UCSB’s Take Back the Night, an organization dedicated to ending sexual violence. Goodin said that she and her co-chair have worked to increase the nonprofit’s presence on campus post-COVID, including providing support spaces and resources for survivors of sexual assault and access to education to prevent assault from occuring. UCSB’s division of the organization supported the efforts to put lighting by Campus Point. 

“For Take Back the Night, we think the lighting is one of the better solutions,” Goodin said, adding that students tend to have more reservations about cameras. 

President Pro-Tempore Evan Sussman said there are justifiable concerns with what cameras are used and where that footage goes, especially in light of ICE activities in the area. But he said the Associated Students and UCPD provided information on how the footage was used and where it went — including stressing that it did not go to the Department of Homeland Security. 

Sussman and Lala said that pushback on the project came from those concerned at its environmental impacts. 

The space around Campus Lagoon and in West Campus is environmentally sensitive habitat. Breeding and birth data from Santa Barbara, visible on the web app BirdView, shows 68 species of birds recorded in the lagoon area, across Isla Vista and in the West Campus area, including the threatened snowy plover. Broadly, scientific studies have shown that artificial lighting impacts bird species, including their nesting and ability to breed. 

Mark Holmgren is the retired curator of the UCSB’s Vertebrate Collection. Holman is still active in surveying the habitat restoration projects in the area. 

“Artificial night lighting shifts the balance of protection of nesting birds toward access to those areas by predators,” he said. 

Holmgren said urbanization has already eliminated many sensitive species throughout Goleta. 

“Only the most tolerant species persist in the urban environment. The effort at Campus Lagoon is to re-create the natural environment to favor native birds. Night lighting reverses that effort.” 

The emergency permits expired earlier this month. To make lighting permanent, UCSB will have to get the okay from the Coastal Commission. UCSB said in a statement to the Independent that it did not have any updates on the permanent lighting application process or how the lights may be appropriate for environmentally sensitive habitats. 

For students Sussman and Lala, student safety, which the lighting is seeking to increase, takes top priority. 

“This is a college campus at the end of the day, and students should be at the forefront,” Sussman said. 

Sussman terms out as a student senator next month but says he plans to continue to advocate for lighting in the area. For the remainder of the year, Take Back the Night is funding a student safety tent near the Campus Lagoon.