Facilities Services has scheduled a necessary power outage to install high voltage cable for the new west campus dining facility. This outage will take place beginning at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 27, and could possibly continue until 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 27. The hope is to end the outage sooner rather than later.
Outages of this nature are typically scheduled the week of Spring Break to minimize the impact on student life, but due to precautions taken against COVID-19, there is no Spring Break on the 2020-2021 Academic Calendar. This results in the need for an outage during a non-peak usage period. While we know this is not ideal for all, please understand that this outage is a temporary inconvenience for the good and growth of our campus as a whole.
The outage will directly impact power to the following residence halls:
Brown Hall
Magnolia Hall
Dogwood Hall
Orange Hall
White Hall
Reese Hall
North Carrick Hall
South Carrick Hall
Laurel Hall
Additional impacted areas include:
Presidential Court Building
TRECS
Student Aquatic Center
Parking Garages G7 and G10 East
New Parking Lot (Former Bubble site)
Art + Architecture and Engineering Areas in the UT Drive Buildings (Formerly Facilities Services)
Tom Black Track and Press Box
Fleet Management
Reese Chiller Building
Fire Pump House – Carrick
Important Information:
Sorority Village and Fraternity Park will not be impacted by this outage.
The outage will impact the heating/cooling capacity in all affected buildings. This means that there will be no air conditioning/heat in the residence halls during the outage. The weather forecast for Saturday is 51-56 degrees and raining. Due to the mild temperatures, no additional resources will be supplied for the power outage.
Elevators, outlet power, and non-emergency lighting will be impacted in all affected buildings.
Emergency backup generators will maintain power to limited lighting in public areas, card access systems, and fire alarm monitoring.
All residence halls will have water except for the upper floors of Laurel Hall which may experience lower pressure depending on time and usage.
We recommend that you limit refrigerator use. Refrigerators that remain shut tend to maintain cool temperatures better than refrigerators that are heavily used during power outages.
Student services such as vending, lockout cards, package checkout, equipment checkout, exercise equipment, laundry, etc. will be impacted by the outage. Key card locks in residence halls will operate on battery power.
What you can do on campus during the outage:
Several locations on campus will remain open with power. The Student Union will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., and Hodges Library will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
University Housing has put together an excellent list of things to do during the power outage. You can find that list here.
Thank you for your patience and understanding as Blaine Construction and Facilities Services complete this important part of the campus dining construction.