Lehigh University students used anything but positive words to describe Southside Bethlehem in a recent survey.

When graduate student Michael DeCrosta asked more than 100 of his fellow classmates to describe their temporary home in three words, "unsafe" and "dirty" were two of the most popular adjectives used.

"Overwhelmingly, the words had a very negative connotation," DeCrosta said.

While he understands it's a tall task to change a group's perceptions, DeCrosta is ambitiously hoping to improve relations between university students and the Southside.

Through the use of grant money, his first step is to add lights to some of the side streets that students said they try to avoid. DeCrosta explained his vision at a recent Mayor's South Side Task Force meeting.

"This year we're focusing on Adams Street," he said. "The idea is that students won't have to think twice about walking down Adams Street."

Over the next two years, he hopes to similarly illuminate Webster and Taylor streets.

And by the time he's done, the neighborhood may be unrecognizable. DeCrosta hopes to apply what he called a "small scale intervention" to the Lehigh Service Building near Adams and Fourth streets.

The university has been talking about renovating it.

"But these projects take so long and I'm impatient," he said jokingly.

The building has windows that are unsightly covered by brick.

DeCrosta's vision includes using these brick spaces for murals.

"To make it an art display that adds to that block," he said. "Something that says: this is a Lehigh building, this is something someone's taking care of and this is beautiful art."

While DeCrosta's focus is on students, the project is considerate of more than that transient population. "The goals of the project are to help create a more walkable Southside, not just for students, but for everyone." He added an educational benefit will be to challenge Lehigh students' perceptions not only of the Southside, but perhaps of communities different from the ones they are most familiar with.