A mini fridge stands open in a dorm room. RHA wants sustainable fridges available for rental to all campus residents.

The RHA passed a resolution Tuesday encouraging the use of Energy Star-rated minifridges in dorms and requesting the Department of Resident Life partner with a rental service to bring more energy efficient fridges to the campus.

Judy Baho, Residence Hall Association Sustainability Committee chairwoman, said the committee conducted an informal survey in 2014 in multiple dorms, which found that about 84 percent of dorm rooms had a refrigerator, and of those, 70 percent were not energy-efficient.

Baho said while this was likely not an accurate representation of all dorm rooms, it gave her committee an idea of the prevalence of energy-inefficient fridges on the campus.

Dino Zagami, a freshman Spanish major who drafted the resolution, said bringing an Energy Star-rated refrigerator rental service to the campus could increase the number of students using energy-efficient fridges and would make out-of-state students’ lives easier.

“I have a friend that flies out from California to come here,” said Michael Dunkelberg, a sophomore bioengineering major and RHA senator. “His fridge doesn’t fit in the overhead compartment.”

This university is the only one in the Big Ten that doesn’t offer either a fridge-rental service or provide fridges for residents in their rooms, Zagami said.

“This [service] could just increase ease of access. … Some services I’ve looked at even offer delivery and pickup services,” Zagami said. “It’s worth looking into.”

Baho said, as an out-of-state student, she has never really had an issue bringing her fridge to school.

“Personally, I kind of think it’s a nonissue,” she said, “but I think this could be a cool thing to have and I support looking into the [service].”

RHA President Sree Sinha said because on-campus residents will mostly be freshmen and sophomores moving forward, they would only need a personal minifridge for about two years.

“It doesn’t make sense for people, even if you’re local, to buy a fridge for just two years,” Sinha said. “This could really be less wasteful all around.”

Courtney Cooper, a sophomore linguistics and Spanish major, said she supported the idea.

“During move-out last year, I saw there were just a bunch of refrigerators sitting outside the dumpsters because people didn’t know what to do with them,” Cooper said.

Now that the resolution passed, Zagami said he plans to reach out to Resident Life and Residential Facilities to discuss looking into a refrigerator rental program.

In the meantime, Zagami’s resolution recommended Resident Life replace ”small refrigerator” with “small Energy Star rated refrigerator” on the recommended fall move-in list.

“I know my parents and I lived by the fall move-in list. Anything that it said, we bought,” Zagami said. “Just by having Energy Star there on the list, I think more people will buy the Energy Star fridge. … It’s a good way to get people to be more energy-conscious right off the bat.”