Friday Night Lights Out encourages simple, effective environmentalism

University Park, Pa. -- Penn State students have their own version of "Friday Night Lights."

It's called Friday Night Lights Out and it's aimed at helping the University minimize pollution and reduce its $1 million a month electric bill.

Some 20 to 45 student volunteers gather on Friday night at the HUB-Robeson Center on the University Park campus. They are divided into small groups and assigned to targeted buildings, where they turn out lights that were left on in public areas such as classrooms, study rooms, restrooms and lounges. It's estimated that students turn off approximately 1,500 to 2,500 light bulbs every Friday night.

The concept is simple -- and effective -- but how do you get college students to give up part of their weekend for a conservation effort?

Organizers appeal to their sense of service and citizenship and a desire to help save the environment -- and then provide free pizza and soft drinks.

"Actually, it has not been difficult to get students involved on a Friday night," Dawn Snyder, project coordinator, said. "I'm sure the free pizza helps, but most express a desire to help the University and protect the environment at the same time. We do it on a Friday night because if lights are left on, they may stay on all weekend. Most of the students finish their assignments by 7:30 p.m. so they have the rest of the weekend for themselves.

"The input and feedback from those participating in the project indicates it has made a big difference for them. It has shown that they, as individuals, can have some impact. It also is succeeding in promoting awareness by getting them to think about energy conservation in a personal way. There are a lot of lights left on, and if we can turn off some of them, we are making a difference."

The student project is a spin-off of efforts by Paul Ruskin, communications coordinator in the Office of Physical Plant, to conserve electricity by turning off lights every day during the lunch hour. Ruskin estimates that, over 26 years through his "Operation Light Lunch," he has turned off some 5 million light bulbs.

His "personal hobby" caught the attention of the Council of LionHearts, a group consisting of leaders of the major student service organizations on campus, and a project was initiated in December 2005 under the direction of Emily Hoberg, former president of the Alpha Beta Chapter of Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity.

Snyder, a College of Education graduate student majoring in college student affairs, restructured the program this year so that the student organizations manage it. Organization leaders recruit participants, distribute information sheets, and provide feedback to Snyder on their groups' effort. The pizza is provided by the University's Housing and Food Services through the efforts of David Manos, assistant director of Housing, and Barry Scerbo, director of Food Services.

"We have a wide variety of organizations involved," Snyder said, "ranging from the Archery Club to various service clubs and social fraternities and sororities. Included are groups that hadn't given much thought to environmental concerns. Increasing awareness is our primary goal and I think we are succeeding in that regard. We may not change attitudes in a drastic way, but we may get them to think about it."

Snyder hopes to expand the program to include more organizations, particularly those that generally don't do service programs. She also hopes to see it expanded to the University's other campuses.

"Friday Night Lights Out personalizes energy conservation, which often is seen as a global or nonpersonal thing," she added. "This gives them something tangible. They can say, 'We just turned off 100 lights, and that makes a difference.' When the students leave campus, they will take with them more than they learned in the classroom.

"Our ultimate goal is to raise awareness among the entire University community -- students, faculty and staff -- about the importance of turning off lights when they leave a room. We hope to eventually have no more lights to turn off on Friday nights."

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