Harvard students who walk to and from the Quad at night will find their trips a little brighter next month, when the City of Cambridge turns on new lights it has installed in the Cambridge Common.

Richard Lockhart, a Cambridge community development adviser, said yesterday the new lights are part of a renovation program for the Common begun in 1974 and funded by the city and the federal government.

Along with the new lights, the Common has a new playground for children, a new baseball field, new fences, simplified pathways, more benches, and trees in place of shrubs that were potential cover for muggers, Lockhardt said.

Lewis A. Armistead, community relations representative for Harvard, said yesterday that although the University did not help fund the renovation, it did review the provisions of the program.

Archie C. Epps III, dean of students, said yesterday he thinks the results of the program so far have been "most pleasant."

Richard Cahill, a sergeant with the Cambridge Police who has patrolled the Harvard Square-Cambridge Common area for the last 12 years, said yesterday the crime rate there has dropped drastically since 1974. "Both the Common and the Square are safer these days," Cahill said.

Dean Spencer '77, of Currier House, said yesterday he feels "a little anxiety" walking through the Common at night, but finds it safer than it has been in the past.