Mizzou Blackout conserves energy, spreads awareness on campus

Student organizations offered alternatives to energy consumption.

By Krissy Tripp

Published April 2, 2009

Columbia participated in Earth Hour while MU was on spring break, but students had a chance to participate in Mizzou Blackout on Tuesday.

Because Earth Hour and the MU spring break historically overlap, Sustain Mizzou wanted to come up with a permanent plan for MU to have its own Earth Hour.

During the hour, conspicuous spots such as the dome of Jesse Hall, the Columns of Francis Quadrangle, Memorial Union tower, the athletic fields at the Student Recreation Complex and Stankowski Field high mast lighting were turned off.

"Our goal is to help people learn energy conservation," said Emily Albertson, Vice President of Programming for Sustain Mizzou. "It's not something you would do 24 hours a day, but we're trying to show students how easy it is to just turn off lights for an hour a day and do something else."

Greeks Going Green President Lauren Hasler, also the Missouri Students Association Sustainability Committee chairwoman, said she originally wanted Blackout Mizzou to coincide with the Blackout football game to promote the game as well, but there wasn't enough time to plan for MU's first ever blackout in the fall.

"After months of planning it finally happened, so that's exciting," Albertson said.

Student groups planned events so students would have alternatives to using energy or sitting in the dark during Blackout Mizzou. Albertson said the observatory would be open and more stars would be visible with the lights out, or they could head outside and play games near the columns or Stankowski field.

Hasler showed a movie in front of her sorority house. While the film used some electricity she said it would conserve more energy for multiple houses to turn all their lights off and see the movie.

"The movie was actually made by a Greek student in Alpha Epsilon Pi," Hasler said. "He owns his own production company, so we showed one of his independent films."

Hasler was able to see MU shutting off many of its lights from her sorority's front lawn while she was setting up the film, and while walking around Greek town, she noticed many of the houses had most or all of their lights turned off.

Residence Halls Association External Chairman Roger Cheng discussed the campfire RHA planned for residents. He said the event went well and he enjoyed having a chance to talk to representatives in a more laid-back setting than RHA meetings allow.

Cheng did admit to having some trouble getting the fire started though.

"It was entertaining," Cheng said. "People were successfully able to make their s'mores, but it took a while."

Albertson said she walked around to see how the event was going on campus. She was excited to see how much participation there was.

"When I was walking past the residence halls, a surprising amount had their lights turned off," Albertson said. "I think MU did better than Columbia."

After she saw everything turn off and walked around, Albertson spent the rest of the hour playing with a glow-in-the-dark Frisbee on the South Quad.