BAR HARBOR — Freshmen at College of the Atlantic have decided to award leftover admissions fees of $1,000 in equal halves to two community groups in Ellsworth — Birdsacre, a bird rehabilitation center, and the Emmaus Center, a shelter for homeless individuals and families.

Steve Thomas, director of admissions, said he challenged the 90 new students with the responsibility of spending the money in a democratic manner.

“I thought of the `$1,000 Question’ as an opportunity, a real way, to introduce the students to participatory governance, a part of the educational foundation of College of the Atlantic,” Thomas said in a prepared statement. The group had two days in which to decide where the money would go and reached their collective decision after several meetings and much heated deliberation.

“Our initial discussions were somewhat chaotic,” said incoming first-year student Traci Hickson, “but we ended up reaching a unified decision that pretty much satisfied everyone.” Hickson herself proposed using the entire sum to take out an advertisement in The New York Times that would challenge Vice President Al Gore to fulfill the promises he made in his book, “Earth in the Balance.”

College of the Atlantic is a small institution in Bar Harbor dedicated to the study of human ecology.