Around this time of year, I have noticed a strange trend in student residences. In dorm rooms, common rooms and hallways, windows are left open. Temperatures are beginning to approach freezing and within a month or two, snow will begin to fall; yet, despite these cold conditions, windows are thrown open to the elements as if we were in midst of summer. And in many parts of residences, it's so hot that it feels like it's still summer too.

Around campus, many thermostats do not function properly and are practically useless. They can be set at 50 degrees and the room will still remain 80 degrees with the heat relentlessly turned on. Facing the choice between not being able to sleep and opening a window to reduce the heat of the room, I can understand why so many windows are left open all around campus even when the weather is freezing outside.

However, this is an inefficient solution. The College is paying a significant amount of money to heat rooms, only for that heat to be wasted, escaping through open windows. It's crazy to spend so much money wasting energy when fixing the thermostats could solve the same problem, probably at a fraction of the cost. I've tried contacting Physical Plant about ineffectiveness of the thermostats and instead of investigating the problem, they've given me the advice of turning the thermostat all the way up, because they believe some of the thermostats may work backwards. It's crazy and a waste of money and energy. The College and students could all be made better off, yet no one is working to rectify the situation.

Furthermore, wasting heat is not good for the environment. Energy is being consumed to heat rooms on campus, probably much of that energy derived from oil and other fossil fuels. So every time a student opens a window to cool a room, he might as well be outside burning gasoline in a barrel for no purpose. Anyone who really considers themselves an advocate against global warming should certainly want to solve this problem, since unlike many other causes of global warming, this one is easy to fix. An average house could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 10,000 pounds a year by installing double pane windows. If improving the energy efficiency of closed windows can reduce energy consumption so much for a small home, think how much energy each large dorm could save just by closing open windows.

However, fixing the thermostats is only the first step. Functional thermostats can only work if students use them and stop leaving windows open-if the College provides working thermostats so that students can control the temperature but no one uses them, an even bigger waste will be created. To solve this problem, students and the College will have to work together.

So I urge the student body and the College to work on conserving energy, specifically in the form of heat. There are light bulb drives to try to replace incandescent bulbs with more efficient fluorescent ones. There is the "Million Monitor Drive," which has the goal of reducing energy waste from monitors that are left on while not in use. Yet, no one seems to care about how much heat is being lost because of open windows and faulty thermostats. Students need to work on controlling the heat in rooms without opening windows and Physical Plant needs to work on making sure thermostats are functioning and accessible so that students can actually control the heat in their residences. Right now a lot of energy is going to waste, and with just a little bit of effort from everyone, that energy can be saved to the benefit of all.

John is a sophomore who has lived through many winters in Wellesley, Ma. You can reach him at jbarbieri09@amherst.edu.