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By Hariqbal Basi and Sherrie Whaley Grady College faculty and staff recently “saw the light” and took advantage of the University of Georgia’s first light bulb exchange. More than half of Grady’s faculty and staff participated in the first of several bulb exchanges across campus designed to save energy. They brought their incandescent, standard light bulbs to the Journalism Building’s Drewry Room and exchanged them for free energy-saving light bulbs provided by Ken Crowe of UGA’s recently created Office of Energy Services. Crowe, the university’s assistant director of utilities, said the free fluorescent bulbs use 25 percent the energy of a standard bulb. “There are no other bulb exchanges scheduled yet, but I hope to have others across campus,” Crowe said. Grady College faculty and staff can still bring their regular light-bulbs to the Dean’s office and trade them for compact fluorescent bulbs until Friday, Nov. 10. The energy initiative was created in response to an unbudgeted $6 million increase in last year’s university power bill, due primarily to rising energy costs. Gov. Sonny Perdue challenged all state entities including UGA to conserve energy and cut costs. Crowe and his colleagues in the Office of Energy Services sought the help of Grady College public relations students to design an innovative and effective campaign to get the energy conservation message out on campus. Eleven senior undergraduates and six graduate students enrolled in Lynne Sallot’s Public Relations Campaigns class designed the UGA Unplugged energy conservation initiative and hosted the light bulb swap. The Grady light bulb exchange is part of a series of events organized and hosted by the UGA Unplugged campaign students, which have included activities at Dawgs After Dark, the Homecoming Block Party and the Grady Homecoming Tailgate. The public relations students also designed a logo for their UGA Unplugged campaign and a tip card to hand out at events. Red-and-black wristbands with UGA’s Office of Energy Services Web address were given out at all events, and students were given the opportunity to sign up for raffles to win gift certificates and other prizes from Athens-area restaurants, shops and sports facilities. Messages encouraging the UGA community to visit the office’s Web site for tips on energy conservation have also been featured on a variety of listservs, including the Archnews listserv, which carries official university announcements to more than 45,000 members of the UGA community.
“The students have done a great job so far. They have conducted very helpful research which has sparked lots of creative ideas,” said Sallot. “Their UGA Unplugged theme, key message and logo are outstanding. They have implemented a number of events and produced a variety of promotional materials that seem to be building awareness on campus -- so they are achieving their campaign goal.” As the student’s client, Crowe challenged them to find the most effective means to promote energy awareness on campus. He is very happy with their efforts. “I have been extremely pleased with the spirit and vigor which these students have put into this project,” he said. “For them to take the lead in developing a logo, distributing wrist bands, and organizing a bulb exchange is like the icing on the cake. I haven't seen the final report from the class yet, but I know it will be first class. I have truly enjoyed the opportunity to work with Dr. Sallot and her class.” UGA Unplugged is also teaming up with the Dawg Gone It, Recycle! Campaign co-sponsored by the university and Athens-Clarke County Recycling to promote recycling efforts alongside energy conservation. According to Crowe, a barometer of UGA Unplugged’s success will be participation at events, visitors to the Web site and ultimately lower energy bills. “Perhaps a year from now we can do a campus survey to see if people feel more informed about energy issues than they did a year ago,” Crowe said. There’s a good chance that will happen since Sallot will be teaching PR Campaigns again spring semester. She plans to have her class build on the fall semester students’ work and expand the fall campaign. “Energy conservation and our endangered global climate is perhaps the most important issue we're facing today,” said Sallot. “At some point, terrorism, the economy, health care, etc., won't matter much if our climate goes haywire as predicted or there’s no clean air left for us to breathe.” |
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