While split on whether energy consumption in dormitories is an issue, many University of South Carolina students are taking measures to conserve energy in their residence halls, according to a survey by The Daily Gamecock.
The survey asked 42 students across 11 residence halls about their personal electricity habits. The questions included how much time lights were left on in the dorm and the amount of time spent running appliances like fans, kitchen equipment or electronics.
The questions for the survey were adapted from a project created by first-year environmental studies student Hannah Gayo, first-year cyber policy and ethics student Erin Owens and first-year biochemistry and molecular biology student Kendall Nader.
The Daily Gamecock also interviewed 10 students about their concerns regarding energy use in residence halls.
Survey results
Student perceptions of energy overconsumption were split, the survey found. On a scale of 1 to 10, 48% of students surveyed answered that energy overconsumption is not a problem, while 52% believe it is.
“Sometimes I feel like we overuse things, in our building, sometimes the hot water goes out because everybody's using the showers for too long…[and] the lights [are] on all the time in the hallway," second-year public health student Mareesa Garrett, who lives in 650 Lincoln, said. "Even though, like, it's good so people can see, I think maybe they should [have] motion sensors.”
Many of the students surveyed make efforts to conserve electricity, the survey found. Forty-eight percent of students said the lights are on in their dorm rooms less than five hours a day, and over 80% make sure the lights are turned off when no one is in the dorm.
“I always turn the lights off when I'm away,” first-year pharmaceutical science student Caroline Cole, who lives in Women’s Quad, said. “If it's winter, I'll turn [the air] down, or I'll turn it up for the summer. I always make sure that I just try not to use stuff when I don't need to.”
Second-year computer science student Matthew Botteon, who lives in 650 Lincoln, said he noticed inefficiencies around his dorm.
“The equipment they have throughout [the dorm], like the dryers that we have definitely run a lot of energy, because they take like, two hours to do my load of laundry, which I feel like is definitely pretty inefficient,” Botteon said.
Energy issue
USC received a record number of applicants for the 2025-26 school year, topping over 60,000 applications according to a March 6, 2025 press release from the university. A slight increase in enrollment over this year’s freshman class of 7,290 is also predicted, according to the press release.
All 10 students interviewed in the second survey felt a larger incoming freshman class, and the construction of new residence halls to accommodate them, may strain energy resources.
“That's more people using energy,” Cole said. “If we have to build more residence halls, that obviously takes energy, and it's going to take resources that are not reusable, which definitely has an impact on the environment, and more students means more things are going to be used.”
USC’s Columbia campus is home to more than 30,000 students, according to fall 2024 enrollment data. Campus residence halls supply energy for over 9,000 on-campus students.
USC has four campus energy facilities that are fueled by Dominion Energy and supply electricity to academic, residential and administrative buildings. Twelve percent of total campus energy use is consumed in residence halls, equating to 1800 kilowatt hours (kWh) per student each month, according to a statement from Jason Lambert, associate vice president of facilities management.
Of USC’s 28 residence halls, 10 are built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) or Green Globe standards, according to a statement from University Spokesperson Collyn Taylor.
The South Carolina Energy Standards Act of 2009 requires all publicly funded buildings to be built to LEED Silver standards. As USC is a public university, all construction after 2009 has been built to LEED Silver standards, according to USC Director of Sustainability Larry Cook.
Green Quad, built in 2005, was the first campus residence hall to meet LEED certifications, Cook said.
“Green Quad…was a choice by the university to advance sustainable practices in buildings on campus,” Cook said. “We were a real leader for that reason in the early days of green buildings, and Green Quad was the first LEED certified building in the state of South Carolina, I believe…so that's just kind of a neat legacy for the University of South Carolina.”
Despite these measures, Cook believes the high energy use in residence halls stems from a disconnect to their cost.
“On college campuses, we’re disconnected from the (energy) bill,” Cook said. “And so there's that separation…If you were to leave your lights on in your apartment and you’re paying utilities, then you see a more direct impact of that. If somebody else is paying the bill, it's a little bit easier to fall into careless habits.”
How to fix it
Second-year environmental studies student Mia LaPinta, a resident assistant in Green Quad, said students who live in Green Quad often pick up sustainable habits when exposed to green practices in the building.
“It's a good habit to get into energy conservation, and it's important to have those conversations when you're starting to get into college and things like that,” LaPinta said. “You're setting a standard for yourself in life.”
LaPinta worked to create legislation that would increase residence hall energy efficiency when she was serving her first term in the student senate, though the legislation was ultimately never written.
As a first-year student, LaPinta served in the 115th student senate, and worked to implement energy-efficient lighting in certain dorms. After noticing inefficient lighting in the Capstone dorm, LaPinta modeled a plan after the replacement of T8 light bulbs, which are fluorescent and have a lower visible light output than LED lights, in Thomas Cooper Library during the 2022-23 school year.
“It kind of sparked conversations about campus lighting sustainability, because we do have a lot of old buildings," LaPinta said. "And as a freshman who lived in Capstone, I was experiencing it firsthand. Our study rooms are all still that T8 light, as far as I know, but it's not energy efficient anymore.”
LaPinta said she reached out to the Residence Hall Association’s Barnwell neighborhood, which includes the Capstone, Columbia and 820 Henderson residence halls.
Though LaPinta met with the Barnwell neighborhood RHA and began to plan this project, the replacement ultimately never occurred because of logistical challenges, she said.
“(RHA) sounded excited about the project, (but) it just didn't materialize,” LaPinta said. “It was a little bit too late in the project planning phase, and that is a huge, huge project. It wouldn't just be (writing) legislation and boom, it's done, like you're contacting multiple people.”
LaPinta is also on the Environmental Justice Team of Sustainable Carolina, and said she thought energy conservation projects would likely succeed if taken on by the organization.
“I think it would be a great idea to try and do that through Sustainable Carolina, simply because of the structure of it,” LaPinta said. “Sustainable Carolina is, by definition, the student-led branch of the Office of Sustainability. We have a plethora of resources that maybe Student (Government) wouldn't have…It could be more effective doing it through Sustainable Carolina. I think that could potentially be an interesting project to take up, especially next year.”
Cook said campus-wide sustainability and energy efficiency can be achieved, but it will require both plans of action from the university and an uptick in personal responsibility from students.
Cook cited the recent USC-Siemens partnership, in which global energy company Siemens worked with the university to implement energy-efficient renovations in five campus buildings, as a model for ways the university can improve sustainability.
“The challenge is that all of this takes time as our energy expands,” Cook said. “I believe that (Facilities Management’s) intention is…To continue that systematically throughout campus. Certainly, it’s the responsibility of the institution to manage all the resources for this community…State money, tuition dollars, efficient systems.”
Students also have the potential to make an impact on university sustainability through changes to their daily habits, Cook said.
“It's also on us as members of the campus population, to make good choices as well, and to turn off lights when we can, to use water responsibly, to think about how we're moving around campus,” Cook said. “Everybody has opportunities, and our institution has different types of opportunities than the individual does, but it’s on all of us.”