The Rutgers Energy Institute is sponsoring four $2,500 cash prizes, which can be put toward tuition or other school related expenses, to be awarded to the top four undergraduate entries in the "Contest for Capping Rutgers Carbon Emissions."
The contest calls for students to work individually or collectively to create energy reduction plans that will provide blueprints for the University's future greening, as well as cost and savings analysis and explanations for their corresponding calculations, according to the REI's Web site. The deadline for plans to be submitted is March 31, 2008.
The institute would like to see the University become a carbon neutral establishment by 2030, a dramatic decrease from its current output 300,000 tons of carbon a year - an amount produced by the New Brunswick/Piscataway campus and by students, faculty and staff commuters combined, REI said.
"For example, you can say 'Okay, I think what we should do is buy 3,000 bicycles, paint them all red and put them on campus and let them be used by anybody who wants them,'" said Cook Campus Dean Richard Ludescher. "And so maybe then, people will then use bicycles instead of driving if they're moving between campuses."
Ludescher also proposed working with the city of New Brunswick to create bicycle paths between the campuses as a solution, which would also prevent students from dangerously riding in heavy traffic.
In the wake of the University's transformation of undergraduate education, the contest allows students to have a say in some of the future restructuring of their campuses.
"I encourage everyone to look into it," said School of Environmental and Biological Sciences/Cook Campus Council President Joseph Neal, a Cook College senior. "[In addition] to winning $2500, you're also making a difference for generations to come."
Council Vice President Jonathan Liao, a Cook College sophomore, said he is optimistic about students' chances to achieve success in the contest.
"There are so many things that people pass by, but you can't think like everyone else," said council Vice President Jonathan Liao, a Cook College sophomore. "If you are one of the people that go ahead and take up the challenge, you are pretty likely to get the money."
