Expect to spring forward a little early this year. Daylight-saving time begins at 2 a.m. Sunday, March 11. This year’s time change will be three weeks earlier than years past and will last one week longer than usual, stretching to the first Sunday in November. “One obvious benefit [of DST] accrues to workers who will have more daylight to spend at the end of the day,” said professor Robert Newman, chair of the department of economics. “The extra hour certainly provides more time for recreational activities. Daylight-saving time may also increase productivity at home, such as yardwork and chores.” The new start and stop dates were created by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The U.S. Congress expects the longer evening daylight hours to translate into energy savings. Although each household saves only a marginal amount of energy by the twice-a-year change, the net amount can be large enough to make a difference, according to a 2001 study by the California Energy Commission. “As is the case for most public policy issues, however, there are both costs and benefits associated with DST,” Newman said. “I’m not sure which dominates.” One unintended effect of the clock change, dubbed the Y2K effect, could potentially throw off time-related technologies including Microsoft Outlook and Blackberries, according to a Feb. 1 report from www.cnbc.com. Most large companies such as Microsoft have downloadable patches available on their Web site to fix the glitches, the report said. While big businesses worry about the time change, Jaclyn Smith, biology freshman, was unaware of the coming change. “I had no clue [about the change],” Smith said. “I guess if it saves energy, then that’s fine with me.” Damon Nettles, first-year mechanical engineering graduate student, believes the idea of DST should be phased out.
“Couldn’t we just do away with it?” Nettles said. “Make the clock standard, and let it keep ticking. It would get dark and light naturally without any artificial implementation.” Psychology freshman Melanie Wadge said the idea, conceived by Benjamin Franklin to save wax from burning candles, is outdated.
“It kinda sucks,” Wadge said. “I don’t really know why we’re still doing it. I don’t think anyone really turns off lights earlier.”
—–Contact Angela Hilliard at ahilliard@lsureveille.com