People interested in ways Penn State is able to save money can pay attention to the work of many biology students, titled The Mueller Report.

About a year ago, Professor Christopher Uhl assigned a biology class to look at the Mueller Building as an ecosystem. The students broke into small groups to research how to optimize the material and energy uses of the building. Former student coordinator and graduate student, Austin Mandryk, said this research provided good figures and leads for future researchers to outline 50 to 60 money-saving suggestions for the university.

"It was a huge, distributed effort," Mandryk said.

The first idea presented has been a reduction in margin settings for word documents. If implemented, this reduction would save the university $123,011 in printer paper and disposal costs per year.

Currently, the margin settings at Penn State University are left-right 1.25" and top-bottom 1". If all margins were reduced to .75", 19 percent more area would be available for text on any given page. Thus, a 100-page document could be reduced to 81 pages using the suggested margin setting.

Joshua Pearce, a graduate student in material sciences, coordinates the Mueller Report and presents it to the public through the Green Destiny Council. Pearce describes this organization as a "loose-knit organization of about 50 students and staff to make Penn State University more sustainable."

The report has two aspects to it, said Chris Russill, a doctoral student in the College of Communications who is directing the Environmental Stewardship Initiative. He deals with the publicity of the Mueller Report and simplifies the information to channel it to the appropriate sources.

In a press release, Uhl said, "It is exciting to see students across various colleges picking up the Mueller opportunity and running with it. The look on people's faces when they see the difference tiny adjustments make in the big picture . . . That is why we do research and teach."

Mandryk said the "research has been received well, it is conservative in figures, and very well documented."

One or two simple money saving ideas will be presented to the Undergraduate Student Government every other week next semester. Pearce said there has been "quite a bit of feedback" about the program because, "most students are in favor of helping the environment and definitely of saving money."