UConn facilities operations vehicles park outside Hawley Armory to resolve a power outage. The University of Connecticut experienced a large-scale power outage early Wednesday afternoon on the east side of campus. (Photo by Marlese Lessing/News Editor, The Daily Campus)
The University of Connecticut experienced a large power outage cancelling classes after 3:35 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. The outage was caused by infrastructure failure, UConn spokesman Mike Enright said.
The power outage affected the east part of campus and buildings including Monteith, Arjona and Oak Hall. Traffic lights along Route 195 also were out, including outside of East Campus and the Storrs Congregational Church.
All power was restored by 7 p.m that evening, Enright said.
“Equipment and infrastructure fails periodically and that is what has happened today,” Enright said in an email.” The excellent electricians at UConn led a team to minimize the problem and bring the buildings back up.”
Vraj Patel, a seventh-semester general studies major, was in class in Monteith where students were giving presentations when the power outage first occurred.
“[The power outage] forced students in the class to present without looking at the slides,” Patel said. “Especially since the classmates were supposed to provide grades on the slides, it made it difficult to judge it from a small laptop screen.”
Gregory Austin, a fifth-semester physiology & neurobiology and German double major, was waiting to attend his Eurotech class in Oak Hall when the outage occurred.
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““The lights flickered for a moment, then the hallway lights turned on. The outlets and the wifi were out,” Austin said. “I guess that means we’re not presenting my video project today.””
Non-essential employees in the affected buildings were released at 3:35 p.m., and classes were held as normally scheduled in buildings with power, according to a UConn Alert. A full list of affected buildings can be found at http://alert.uconn.edu/
Ashley Anglisano is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. She can be reached by email at ashley.anglisano@uconn.edu.
Marlese Lessing is the news editor for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at marlese.lessing@uconn.edu. She tweets @marlese_lessing.
