Changes planned for blue emergency lights

Several of UCF's Emergency Blue Light Phones have been covered in trash bags in recent months as part of the university's plan to standardize them and upgrade to a better power source.       

The EBLP's are currently powered by electricity from local streetlights, which can be hazardous during repair, said Emergency Management Coordinator, Jeff Morgan.

UCF Telecommunications is renovating the EBLP's so they will run by generators in nearby campus buildings. With the push of a button, the EBLP's send out a call to UCF Police so they can respond to the emergency.      

"Running the emergency lights with generators allows them to work if there is an outage," Morgan said. "We realize that the lights are an important safety communication system for students, so we have been paying more attention to them."    

In 2009, UCF Police received 273 calls from the EBLP's on the main campus and at the Rosen campus. More than half of those calls originated from the phones located in UCF's parking garages. The average response time was 4.1 minutes and almost all calls were for non-emergencies.     

"Most calls that the police receive are requests for auto-related needs," said Christine Dellert of UCF News & Information. "People might use the phones in the garages if they need a jump start or can't find their car."  

Students have expressed concern about the EBLP's being unusable while they are covered in trash bags, but the university is working on small groups of three to four at a time to avoid shutting down all 175 phones at once during the standardization process.      

"I thought they were broken and was wondering when they would get fixed," said Aja Fraser, a sophomore psychology major. "It's reassuring to know that UCF is improving the phones instead of just failing to fix them."     

Until about six months ago, UCF's emergency management Web site didn't have a page dedicated to the EBLP's, but now students can go online to see the exact locations of all the phones on emergency.ucf.edu. Emergency Management plans to add updates on which phones are being renovated in the future to keep students better informed of these changes.     

Two EBLP's near the Reflecting Pond were recently bagged along with another one northwest of the Health and Public Affairs building. All three are working now.      

UCF Telecommunications is also standardizing the EBLP's by painting them all "safety yellow" with black writing. There are currently some EBLP's on campus that are painted black and need to be updated, including one by Tailgaters next to the UCF Arena. Renovated EBLP's will also use blue LED power lights that are brighter and use less electricity than the original bulbs.     

"This standardization plan has been in the works for over a year and a half," Morgan said. "We have about 30 more phones left to upgrade."     

To ensure that they are in working order, the EBLP's are checked via computer software weekly, and physically checked monthly. They are usually able to be repaired within a day, but if not, a trash bag is placed over it until it is fixed. UCF Telecommunications also keeps more than a dozen EBLP's in stock in case a new one is needed.      

Morgan said that so far there have been no reports of anyone trying to use an EBLP in the middle of an emergency only to realize that it was bagged. Officer Jeannette Emert of UCF Police suggested that students be aware of where all the EBLP's are in case one is being renovated.

"You can see another phone from where you are standing," Emert said. "Most people use their cell phones now anyway."   

Every new building or garage constructed on campus is required to have a certain ratio of EBLP's nearby. These new phones will already be painted safety yellow and powered by generators. Isolated EBLP's on campus are run using solar power.      

"We don't have an exact deadline set to complete the standardization," Morgan said. "Right now it's important for us to get the word out to curious students."