Power outage leaves upper campus in the dark

A power outage at 2 p.m. today shut down electricity, hot water, room heat and internet access in a total of 16 buildings. The outage also left prox card readers nonfunctional, leaving students unable to gain access to buildings.

The outage was caused by construction crews working on a project outside Edwards Hall. Officials are still investigating the exact cause of the problem, University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt '96 said Tuesday evening.

"That's terrible," said Peter Liu '10, a Blair Hall resident, upon hearing that he would not have heat or electricity in his room tonight. "There's really nothing I can do about it, but I'm a little surprised."

Power was reconnected in nine buildings, including Witherspoon and Edwards halls, by 5 p.m. Other buildings, however, including the remainder of Mathey and Rockefeller colleges, remain without electricity and other affected services, but officials believe those buildings will probably see services restored overnight, Cliatt said.

About 750 students live in the affected buildings, but some of them had already left campus after completing their final exams. Dining Services delivered meals to around 550 undergraduates in the Mathey and Rocky dining halls today, which is probably closer to the actual number of students remaining in those colleges, Cliatt added.

Beds will be set up in Dillon Gym for the students living in the affected dorms. Firestone Library and Frist Campus Center will remain open all night for those who need to prepare for finals, and those seeking to reschedule exams because of the outage have been told to contact the Registrar's Office.

Cliatt explained that all requests will be considered but will not automatically result in a new exam time. Deputy registrar Robert Bromfield will also meet with each student before approving any changes.

Residential colleges have already begun making arrangements for their students, who otherwise face the prospect of an icy night in a darkened room, to sleep elsewhere.

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Danielle McKoy '09, who lives in Holder Hall, said she was informed by her RCA that cots would be set up in Dillon for students to use. "I'm going to try to go to one of my friend's rooms," she said. "I don't really want to sleep in the gym."

Forbes College administrator Alison Cook sent an e-mail to the college's residents encouraging them to make space in their rooms for friends from affected rooms in Rocky and Mathey to sleep over.

Facilities department officials could not be reached for comment late Tuesday afternoon, but an e-mail sent out by undergraduate housing manager Angela Hodgeman to upper-campus dorm residents noted that staff members were working to correct the situation as quickly as possible.