CoPIRG students to sponsor dorm conservation contest

The UCCS dorms are in a race. Specifically, they are in a Race to a Gigawatt.

Campus Conservation Nationals, or CCN, are hosting their second annual Race to a Gigawatt event. It is a national competition between colleges. CCN hopes to raise awareness of conservation and lower the total usage of colleges across the nation.

"Gigawatt" refers to a gigawatt-hour, a measurement of energy usage. According to Katie McCormack, the campus organizer, lowering usage by one gigawatt-hour would be the same as shutting down a coal-burning power plant for four hours.

Colorado Public Interest Group, or CoPIRG, is a registered club on campus that has been working to get UCCS involved in the CCN competition.

Originally, CoPIRG had wanted the competition to be between the individual dorm buildings. However, the design of the meters on campus makes this unfeasible. Instead, the organizers are working with Colorado College to set up a competition with them.

McCormack said, "They're competing a week earlier, but they are totally on-board."

For our college, the competition begins on Feb. 27, and will run until March 19. During the course of the event, measurements of dorm energy and water usage will be taken regularly. These will be reported to CCN.

Anyone who is interested will be able to track UCCS' progress on CCN's website (competetoreduce.org).

McCormack wanted students to form habits from this event. "We want them to make long-lasting changes," she said. To this end, COPIRG is working on getting supplies to assist students in their conservation needs. They will be giving out low-energy light bulbs, commonly known as CFLs, as well as power strips.

McCormack said, "Power strips are great for students; they have a ton of electronics that suck electricity if you leave them plugged in, but you don't have them [switched] on, necessarily." The beauty of power strips is that you can plug all of your electronics into the strip, and turn off the whole strip, saving the electricity from those electronics.

COPIRG is hosting a kickoff event in the Upper Lodge starting at 6 p.m. on Feb. 27. McCormack is working with the Residence Hall Association, as well as the dorms' RAs, to make the kickoff event worth going to.

She said, "It's going to be Mardi Gras themed; we're just going to try to get all the dorm residence, have a party, get them motivated."

Carlos Rincon, one of COPIRG's members, added, "It's our main goal, to motivate, want them to want to do the challenge."

Though this event is a competition, CCN is not offering any prizes for winning. However, CoPIRG is working on getting prizes to give out to students.

McCormack said, "We are working on trying to get some cool prizes for students. We're probably going to design some cool V-necks and crew-neck T-shirts that they can win if they're doing well."

"The prize is kind of abstract," she added, referring to the carbon emissions that the competition aims to reduce.