About nine months ago, the Poly staff used its weekly column to talk about the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center and the exorbitant amount of energy it wasted by constantly having all its lights on, even when no one was working in it. It could be a valid argument that some lights were needed for security purposes, but certainly not every single one.
But now that EMPAC construction is finished and the grand opening has concluded, I’d like to turn attention away from that expense to another, which had the same velour when it opened in 2004: the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies.
Biotech is certainly pleasing to the eye; a glass ceiling to contrast all the brick. The seemingly endless sea of lights outlining the walkway adjacent to the building makes for awesome scenery—if you’re not directly next to them—and therein lies my main problem with Biotech: the light pollution.
I understand the lights are there for safety reasons, and the path needs to be lit my some means. However, I don’t feel it is necessary to have a massive number of blinding lights for one walkway. RPI could take out every other one, maybe more, and the pathway (and the grass next to it) would still be lit. Even the new lights installed on the pathway to EMPAC give off less light, are ample enough to guide you on the path, and are not nearly as numerous as the ones around Biotech.
For most students, the brightness of the Biotech lights in their eyes is the only issue with these lights. However, those using the Hirsh Observatory, whether for a class or just for the experience, have other issues with the Biotech and its surrounding area.
Light pollution from the lights lining the sidewalk is not the only source of unneeded light: The Biotech itself, having high glass ceilings, lets light filter to approximately the exact height of the Hirsch Observatory. And, just like EMPAC, I know some of that lighting is for security. However, keeping the entire building lit just to be aesthetically pleasing is detrimental to the learning and research that occurs in the observatory. The amount of light pollution directly affects the amount of error in observing a star or planet and its intensity and magnitude. When there is such a large error in experiments, it is difficult to experience the lesson of the lab firsthand, and so seems more like another lecture period, instead of a hands-on experience.
With all the money that RPI puts into renovations around campus, I feel that whoever comes up with the schematics for future renovations needs to consider more than just what will be good for that particular project. They should consider all surrounding entities as well as energy costs. For a school such as RPI with high focus on future sustainability efforts, I’m surprised to see such things overlooked. I hope future projects will be well-planned, so RPI doesn’t need to find more funding to fix problems that could be avoided the first time. Meanwhile, I will continue to go to my astronomy lab, crossing my fingers that I get good enough results from my observations to complete the lab assignments.
