Plans for the installation of lights at Hooks Baseball Stadium continue while the residents of Faculty Drive vehemently express their opposition to the proposal.

Student Government sees lights as an opportunity to enhance student life. After unanimously passing a bill on Oct. 1 that recommended their installation, SG and the baseball team collected 1,637 signatures in support.

"Last spring a LEAD group gave a very convincing and thorough presentation on why the stadium should have lights," senior Ryan Ramsey, SG President, said. "In September, at the President's Leadership Conference, the proposal was again raised. One thing students said was that athletic events are very important in building campus community."

Currently, the team cannot play night games, which SG and the athletic director, Ron Wellman, think would allow more students to attend.

"Students are typically in class in the afternoon, so don't get to watch one of the best teams in the country that happens to be theirs," Wellman said.

This university and the University of Maryland are the only ACC teams without lighting at their baseball stadiums, and the university is the only team nationally ranked in the Top 25 with the inability to play night games. Team members say that stadium lights would also give them the opportunity to take afternoon classes.

"Because we have to have practice and games in the afternoon, academic scheduling is really difficult. We've had players who have had to change majors because of it," senior Ryan Johnson said. "We also can't host regionals on home field."

The Athletic Department has consulted an engineer, who has developed a lighting "spill" diagram. According to Wellman, the lights would have no "spillage" into the surrounding neighborhood yards.

Wellman is still waiting for information regarding security and noise issues, parking and traffic control. He has also met with concerned homeowners and told them that he would provide them with the information as soon as it is made available.

According to David Wilson, president of the Faculty Drive homeowner's association and instructor of mathematics, the neighborhood is "totally against" the proposal for numerous reasons.

"We see this as something that would reduce property values. I recently talked with an appraiser who said that 'they are messing with your money' by installing lights," Wilson said.

"There is also inadequate parking and security," he added. "We are afraid of consequences that could be really detrimental to the quality of life on Faculty Drive."

Wilson said the residents see the project as a breach of trust by the university. The previous athletic director, Gene Hooks, promised them that there would never be lights at the stadium, according to Wilson.

"It's just ludicrous they would even be considering this. No other university has a situation similar to Wake Forest; other schools don't have baseball stadiums in the middle of a neighborhood," Wilson said.

Wilson explained that the homeowners said they are neither anti-students nor anti-athletics.

He said that they have proposed an alternative place to hold night games: Ernie Shore Stadium. But Wilson also expressed doubt as to student interest in baseball.

"I don't think lights would significantly increase student attendance. You probably won't see the students who signed that petition at a baseball game," he said.

"Nobody has given us a substantial reason for having lights. We have a hard time understanding the way this has progressed; why now?"

"They can realign the sound system and reduce the light spillage, but night games would still change the neighborhood and abuse the trust of the residents. We will continue to fight this as long as we can," Wilson said.

The ultimate decision lies with the athletic department.