Every year the WVU family looked forward to getting shivers and goosebumps from more than the cold temperatures as a glowing Woodburn Hall welcomed the holiday season, with the lights staying on well into January to cheer Mountaineers returning from their holiday break.
A Daily Athenaeum story in November 2007 reported that the approximately 7,000 miniature white lights remained lit for 40 days after the ceremony and were permanently placed on the building but taken down every 2 years for maintenance.
In 2011, the holiday lights were removed for good when the exterior of Woodburn received a $3.9 million overhaul. Work included a new roof, restored stonework, new copper-lined gutters, and restoration of architectural wood elements. A press release reported, “This year, LED lights will wash over the building, scattering shafts of gold and blue before changing to white in mid-January to begin a new tradition to highlight the iconic building year-round.” And the lighting ceremony was discontinued.
While still festive, this energy-efficient effect didn’t create the same deep emotional response from the WVU “Whos down in Whoville.” Chris Tarabella, who worked in the Eberly College’s dean’s office, believes that people felt the LED lighting “didn’t feel appropriate to the tradition.”
By 2015, students tried to spark a movement to return to the original style of lights. A November 11, 2015, Daily Athenaeum article mentioned that biology student Layne Veneri tweeted a picture of Woodburn Hall with the hashtag-full comment “Hey #WVU, you should start lighting up Woodburn like this again for the Holiday Season ... #RelightWoodburn.”
In the DA, student-writer Jordan Miller noted that “After 346 retweets, 407 favorites, and having an impression on more than 56,000 Twitter users, the idea to relight Woodburn left social media and gained traction in the real world, with the Student Government Association unanimously passing a resolution in support of the movement.” Alas, the 2015 wish for the re-lighting was not to be.