Power was finally restored late Wednesday afternoon to 301 W. High Street after two rocky days of lost power, causing displacement of hundreds of students whose classes were canceled.
Students first received an advisory the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 12 indicating power was out in the building, noting all classes would be canceled until at least 4:45 p.m. A backhoe, likely aiding with construction to the neighboring Victoria Street building, crashed into the building’s power conduit. Although power was out in the building, some professors were able to secure a building for their classes in Victoria and James Hall across campus. A later advisory Tuesday, informed students classes were canceled for the rest of the evening after power had still not been restored.
During the day Wednesday, power was still out. Initially, there was no Rowan advisory sent to students indicating a course of action.
Victoria Todorova, who is a sophomore Radio, Television and Film student with a journalism minor, whose classes were mostly in 301 W. High St. Wednesday, ended up severely displaced due to the outage.
“I’m a commuter and I park in the Ellis Street lot. When I walked to 301 High in the morning, a lady outside told me my class was moved to James Hall. I walked there to only receive an email from my professor saying my class was actually in Victoria,” Todorova said. “So I walked all the way back again, and then my next two classes were in James.”
College of Communication and Creative Arts Dean Sanford Tweedie spent most of his day Wednesday at the building, which is home to several classrooms and departments of his college, working with subcontractors to restore power.
In an email sent to CCCA students Wednesday afternoon, Tweedie explained subcontractors expected the power to be restored early Wednesday, but they were delayed until 1 p.m. When power was restored at that time, the electrical panel blew, causing a prolonged outage in the building.
“I realize that communication was not immediate and possibly confusing today. We were attempting to keep classes in 301 High and thought restoration would take less than 10 minutes once crews arrived [Wednesday morning],” Tweedie said in the email. “I appreciate everyone’s understanding, patience and willingness to be displaced in what turned out to be a turbulent two days.”
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