Each Friday night, groups of unsupervised students enter deserted buildings around campus.

But these students are not up to any unscrupulous activities -- they're conserving energy.

The Friday Night Lights Out program, developed in December 2005 and steadily gaining popularity with each week, was inspired by the college hobby of Paul Ruskin, Office of Physical Plant (OPP) spokesman, when he was a student at Penn State.

"I noticed even as a student that, after classes, the lights would be left on," Ruskin said. "It occurred to me that this isn't always a good thing to do if no one comes in [the room] after you."

The Council of Lionhearts, a service leadership organization at Penn State, and Friday Night Lights Out contacted student organizations to encourage their participation, said Dawn Snyder, graduate assistant in the division of student affairs and coordinator of Friday Night Lights Out.

Interested student organizations can sign up to participate by contacting Snyder, she said.

Each Friday at 6 p.m. organizations scheduled for that day meet in the HUB for free pizza and drinks

provided by Housing and Food Services before they receive instructions for the evening, Snyder said.

Students go through classroom buildings on campus and turn off lights in rooms that have been left turned on and keep track of how many light switches they turn off as they go. On average, students turn off about 1,500 to 2,000 light bulbs per week, Snyder said.

"If you turn the lights off in a couple of classrooms, it adds up," Ruskin said.

In the last fiscal year, July 2005 to June 2006, the University Park campus emitted 480,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent, Brandi Nagle, engineering aid for OPP, said.

OPP has set a goal to reduce campus emissions to what they were in 1996 by the year 2012, Nagle said.

"[University Park has a lot of emissions] because we are such a big place and have a lot of facilities here and we burn a lot of coal to provide our steam needs," Nagle said.

Friday Night Lights Out's ultimate goal is to create enough awareness of the need to turn off unused lights that the program is no longer necessary, Snyder said.

Snyder plans to have a Web site developed for the program by the fall semester, she said, adding that she hopes it will encourage more students to get involved and make it easier for organizations to sign up.

"When students hear about climate change and global warming, it may sound like a big problem that only the government can fix," Ruskin said. "But this program shows that everyone can do their part and help save the planet, one light switch at a time."

Kristen Jurinko (sophomore-geobiology) said she volunteered for Friday Night Lights Out because she is concerned with the amount of energy used on campus.

"Everyone should turn out the lights when they leave a room, or at least try to. Even turning off the lights in the bathroom or laundry room late at night when no one's there can make a difference," Jurinko said.

Amanda Banik (sophomore-elementary education) also volunteered because she was concerned about energy use.

"If we're using as much money as I think we are [toward energy], people should be concerned because it could go to something else," she said.