Leverett Glare

About 50 members of Leverett House met last night with College officials to protest the installment of flourescent lights in Leverett Towers.

Students also presented a position signed by 143 Tower residents, or more than half of the population there, objecting to the new lights, which they say cause too much glare in the rooms.

The $50,000 project is part of an ongoing campus wide program by the Faculty's Office of Facilities to cut energy use in the Houses.

Electricians are replacing recessed incandescent bulbs by the windows in Tower suites with florescent fixtures set in the middle of the rooms. So far, they have refitted three floors in F-entry and the project should be done in four to six weeks, according to Robert E. Lyng '70 of the Office of Facilities.

The major complaints voiced by students were that the lights are overly bright, causing eyestrain when reading, and that they hum annoyingly.

"They make you feel like you live in a men's room, and they make everything look green," Jean Schiro '85, who organized the petition, said yesterday.

Some students also said they plan to buy their own lights for the rooms and leave the flourescent lights turned off.

At last night's meeting, the Harvard employees overseeing the project faced often hostile questions. Michael N. Lichten, energy coordinator for the Faculty, said the installment of the new fixtures will continue, but that his office will look into finding flourescent bulbs that give a warmer light.

Lyng said yesterday that switching to flourescent lights will cut energy costs in Leverett House by 20 percent annually. Leverett currently spends $60,000 each year on electricity, making it the third biggest user after Currier and Mather Houses.

As part of the same energy cost reduction program, rooms in New Quincy are due to be refitted with flourescent lights sometime this fall, according to Lyng.