ENERGY SAVERS: Class of 2007 students and residents of 9 Vine Street, from left, Joann Chan, Jesse Nasta, Janet Mosley and Lane Raskin recently won the Do it in the Dark competition, sponsored by Project $AVE.

The goal of the competition was to see which residents residing in Wesleyan's wood-framed housing could reduce their energy the most. Wesleyan's Environmental Organizer's Network (EON) and Physical Plant calculated the percentage improvement of each wood frame student house between fall semester and spring semester. The wood-frame houses use 40 percent of the energy used to power all campus buildings and produce 43 percent of Wesleyan's CO2 emissions.

The residents at 9 Vine Street cut their energy use by 50 percent. The competition began Jan. 24 and ended May 8.

"We basically just turned off the lights and TV when we weren't using them," Chan said." We all try to stay pretty conscious of our energy use."

For their efforts, Ed Below, director of administrative applications and Project $AVE coordinator awarded the winners with a $160 gift certificate to a local restaurant on May 24.

EON member Amanda Hungerford '07, pictured in upper left corner, adopted the idea from other colleges, and submitted it to Project $AVE. (Photo by Olivia Bartlett)