green news

Have you noticed anything different about dinners in Ross Dining Hall lately? Particularly on Thursday nights? Perhaps you detected the slightly dimmed lighting or the more romantic ambiance? If you haven’t noticed the Ross romance — or are just a die-hard Proctor fan — here’s the scoop behind Thursday candlelight dinners.

Believe it or not, Ross has created Thursday candle light dinners not to foster further student romance, but to spread environmental awareness about how much energy we use as a college community. The people behind this stealth operation are none other than the Ross RSC’s. If you aren’t familiar with the term RSC, it stands for Residential Sustainability Coordinator. Each commons has a head RSC as well as a few first-year RSCs, who together plan events and initiatives that make our campus more sustainable and our student body more environmentally aware.

A first-year RSC first came up with the idea for a candlelight dinner last semester during energy month. At first, she was considering a candlelight party, but after discussing the idea with several of her peers, she realized it “would be cool to do it during dining hours because more kids could experience it, and most importantly, it is romantic!”

The first candlelight dinner was held back in November. It was originally intended to be a simple one-time deal; however, the response was so overwhelmingly positive that the RSCs decided to instate the tradition on a bi-weekly basis.

“People seem to be pretty excited about the candlelight dinners — they definitely calm down the atmosphere in the dining hall,” said Sarah Simonds ’11, head RSC.

Thanks to the RSCs, every other Thursday students are saved from the harsh blinding LED lights in Ross and can instead join together in a more relaxed meal. Thursdays are also the night of Ross Fireplace Cafe, so the RSCs keep the candlelit theme going all night!

For those who have been to a candlelight meal in Ross, you may have realized that not all of the lights are turned off. Apparently, for safety purposes and food preparation, candles are not completely sufficient. A few lights must remain on throughout the meal, accompanying the multiple candles that are lit on each table. What’s more, Ross dining hall already uses high efficiency LED lighting, saving a great deal more energy than  regular light bulbs.

Saving energy, however, is just one part of the message the RSCs are trying to convey. The RSCs’ only hope, according to Simonds, will be to get people talking about sustainability on campus.

“We only hope that through the candlelit night, kids would start to think about how we could live happily sometimes without the facilities we thought we depend so much on,” said Simonds. “We could always turn protecting the environment into something fun!” The RSCs hope to continue this success in Ross and perhaps even Proctor in the future.

The only caveat the RSCs have concerning the future of the candlelight dinners is trash in the candles. Students have thrown trash in the candles, poured wax all over the tables and even broken the candles in some instances. The RSCs ask that the student body respects their efforts to make the campus more sustainable by leaving the candles alone and simply enjoying the atmosphere it provides.