Letter: Alumnus says turn off the lights

09/10/08 - To the Cigar, I am dutifully responding to the request in Monday's Cigar asking for letters to the editor. In that issue Brenna McCabe penned a story about the University of Rhode Island exploring options to save money in dire financial times. That article, and a similar story recently in the Providence Journal, said the university wanted to save money by trimming energy costs. Yet the university appears to be missing one huge savings opportunity that is as easy as flipping a switch.On a recent Saturday night during the start of the school year I was driving down Flagg Road with Vice President of Administration Bob Weygand's comments about saving energy dancing through my mind.

I passed the wonderful new Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences and - to my horror - saw every single light on in the building at 11 p.m. A few weeks later I passed the building on another Saturday night and the lights were on yet again. Construction workers were nowhere to be found.

At first I was horrified. I could literally see the university throwing money out the window. This, a university that puts stickers on light switches saying, "Please turn off the lights when leaving," seemed to be missing an obvious savings.

Then it dawned on me. I'm positive these lights were left on as some sort of all-night test of the electrical system. I'm positive that the two days I drove by were just flukes. I'm somewhat positive that if you drive by tonight - after the administration reads this letter - the lights will be off. And I'm positive the university will find better ways to spend the dollars saved by this simple act of throwing a switch.

Just a suggestion.



Chris Barrett

Class of 2008