By Ashlyn Kelly
A power outage is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. on Nov. 13 and will last approximately 6 to 7 hours, according to an email from the Dean of Students Office.
Power will be cut to 12 buildings: the Athletic Center, Dwight Hall, Henry E. Whittemore Library, Crocker Hall, Foster Hall, Hemenway Hall, Annex, and Labs, May Hall, O’Connor Hall, Corrine Hall Tower, Horace Mann Hall, Larned Hall, and Peirce Hall.
According to Patricia Whitney, assistant vice president of facilities and capital planning, they are doing “preventative” work on the system because of “degradation” due to water.
Whitney said an engineer identified the problem during the summer. After the issue was identified, facilities tried to schedule the work for “times that don’t impact our business.”
Holidays and weekends are “typically” looked at, she added. “But when we do this type of work, Eversource, our electricity provider, has to be involved and Eversource would not do it on the holiday [Veterans Day].”
Her team chose Nov. 13 because “with Thursday being a holiday, we thought more students and faculty and staff might actually be out of town” and “all the players were available,” according to Whitney.
She said what is happening on campus is also taken into consideration. There is a football game happening on Nov. 13, “so that’s why we pushed it back to nine o’clock.”
“Carey Eggan [Deputy Director of Athletics] said we really have to have our locker rooms and the training room to get everybody ready for the game,” she added.
Olivia Copeland, a sophomore English major who lives in Corinne Hall Towers, said the outage is “not ideal,” but she understands that it is “necessary.”
“I’m glad they’re doing whatever work they need to do so that the power does not go out unexpectedly,” she added. “At least they gave us enough notice to plan our weekends around it, but I hope that if this needs to happen again, they will take care of it over the summer.”
Olivia Heafey, a sophomore mathematics major, said she is planning to play “card games and board games” with others who live on her floor.
“The only thing I’m really not looking forward to is the climb up the stairs anytime that I want to leave my building,” said Heafey, who lives on the 11th floor of Corinne Hall Towers.
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