In July, when energy prices were sky-high and some pundits were predicting a continued rise, Charles Riordan, facilities director at Loyola College of Maryland, and his colleagues locked in a chunk of their electricity prices--about a quarter of the college's consumption--to cover the next two years. Now that energy prices have fallen, the purchase might look like a bad move. But buying low in fixed energy contracts is not really the point, experts argue. Rather, it's protecting an institution from volatile price swings. As energy prices have risen and dipped recently, more colleges have purchased energy contracts--and have turned to outside help in buying them. Noel Chesser, who works for South River Consulting, a Baltimore-based energy-consulting firm that advises Loyola College and many other institutions, says organizations fall more or less into two categories: those that can cope with volatile energy prices to get a cheaper price over the long term, and those that need stable energy prices even at a higher cost. Corporations often fall into the first category, while colleges usually fall into the latter. Still, some colleges continue to make those decisions entirely on their own.