
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 20, 1994                   TAG: 9401200110
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COLLEGES, UNIVERSITIES CLOSE TO SAVE ENERGY

When Virginia Power sent out early-morning warnings of rolling black-outs Wednesday, the folks who run Virginia Military Institute decided then and there to cut their losses.

"We didn't want to risk being down for any extended period of time. The best way for us to conserve energy was to shut down," said John L. Rowe Jr., VMI's business executive.

And so it did - for the first time since at least the early '60s.

Throughout the region, colleges and universities did what they had to do to get through the frigid day, some closing, some staying open, all expecting students and staff to turn off the extra study lamps and do without the VCRs and TVs.

Both Virginia Power and Appalachian Power Co. asked consumers to save whatever energy they could.

Also closing for the first time in eons was Washington and Lee University - sacrificing the time-honored Founder's Day activities held annually on the anniversary of Gen. Robert E. Lee's birth.

"President [John] Wilson was out walking his dog early in the morning and just realized conditions were so severe we couldn't ask people to come in," said university spokesman Brian Shaw.

W&L will be closed today, too. Efforts to reschedule Founder's Day are ongoing, as the schedules of out-of-town dignitaries are juggled, said Shaw.

At Virginia Tech, the semester's first day of classes came Wednesday, already postponed a day. Ice-sheathed back streets and conked-out cars sent scores of students to campus aboard the Blacksburg Transit buslines, which expects equally heavy use again today, said spokesman Mike Connelly.

Tech staff and faculty toiled under desk lamps and turned off unused computers in an effort to cut electrical use by 10 percent. In general, though, it was an easy-going day. Everyone knew it was a tough day to get to town.

"We're just kind of hearing a whole host of transportation problems people are having," said spokesman Dave Nutter.

Roanoke College shut down. Hollins College, with a reduced student body during the January short term, held class. So did Randolph-Macon Woman's College, where, like Hollins, most students live on campus.

Radford University continued as usual, with energy-saving measures in place.

by CNB