De-illumination

According to a member of stage crew--who are currently setting up for tonight's "winter illumination"--the campus will host far fewer lights this year. Only a single tree is to be lit up at tonight's ceremony in contrast to the past few years where entire buildings were strung with lights. I spoke to Scott Yonan the Special Asst and Ombudsman for the Office of the President about to find out why this year will be so dim:

"A couple of reasons: in today's economy we're all cutting back. It's a very expensive venture... the labor just to put lights up on these buildings was over $3000," he said. "There's also the green issue. All those light not only cost money to run but there's emissions involved. It increases our carbon footprint, so this year we're de-illuminating."

Yonan said that he expects the return to more lights in the future. However, he said they will likely use LED lights because they use less electricity than traditional incandescent bulbs.

The event is scheduled for 4-5 tonight on the quad outside the architecture biulding. .