As dusk falls on campus this winter, the campus community may notice something different about the front of Old Main, as it is now lit up with colored LED panels.

The lighting made its debut Dec. 3, when the building was lit blue.

William Weber, the vice president for business affairs, said the idea of the lights does not correlate to the holiday season, but came about when the university was approached to light up the building blue for World Autism Awareness Day, which is April 2.

“We couldn’t do it in the time frame they gave us, but we started investigating,” Weber said.

He said the idea of lighting up Old Main came up again as the university’s strategic plan began to be implemented last year.

“One of the goals that we came up with was paying more attention to the streetscape of Lincoln Avenue,” Weber said. “We liked the idea of being able to light up the castle and went ahead with it.”

The lights are controlled by a computer program and have three main colors that can be mixed to create different combinations. The lights can also be set to change after a certain duration of time.

Weber said the lights will be used sparingly, primarily to let the community know a special event is happening on campus.

“If people drive by campus and see the castle is a different color, they will know something special is going on,” Weber said.

One of the special events Old Main was lit up for was the Celebrating the Arts reception in the foyer of Old Main, which is currently home to six different holiday trees.

The reception celebrated the local school children who created ornaments to help decorate the trees.

As a part of the annual holiday tradition, the staff of Old Main has decorated five small trees and one large tree in foyer.

Each of the smaller trees is decorated with ornaments created by local school children. The schools that decorated this year’s trees were Ashmore, Carl Sandburg, Jefferson, Lake Crest and Mark Twain elementary schools.

Judy Gorrell, the executive secretary to the president, has worked in the president’s office for more than 19 years and said having the students create ornaments is a form of outreach and gets the community involved. She said having the trees is also a campus tradition.

“Having the students make ornaments is just a nice touch,” Gorrell said.

The large main tree is decorated with photos of acts that have visited the Doudna Fine Arts Center since it opened in 2009.

It also displays paint pallets, instrument ornaments and masks that were loaned from the theater department.

Gorrell said the theme for the decorations is decided by committee with input from the president.

“We brainstorm throughout the year, and this year, President (Bill) Perry wanted the ornament he gives to distinguished donors and alumni to be of the Doudna so we thought ‘Celebrating the Arts’ would be something that went well with that,” Gorrell said.

Old Main is open every day from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., and a second public reception will be hosted from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Dec. 13.

Amy Wywialowski can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].