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Despite power returning for the majority of Michigan State University’s campus, students say the aftereffects of the near-seven-hour outage still continue to complicate campus life. The T.B. Simon Power Plant, which supplies electricity and steam power to MSU, experienced a central connection point failure that resulted in a campuswide power outage on Saturday.
Power was restored for the majority of campus by 2:52 a.m. on Sunday morning, according to a MSU Department of Police and Public Safety email — nearly 11 hours after the outage began at 4:15 p.m. Crews continue to work to restore power to the rest of campus, although most buildings will remain closed through Monday evening. Classes will transition to remote learning on Monday from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. to reduce the impact on MSU systems.
But medical laboratory science freshman Samuel Chapman isn’t sure what that means for his 8 a.m. class. “I haven’t heard from my professors yet, but I was talking with some peers in the class, and there is a lot of concern and questions about whether we should go or not,” Chapman said. Economics junior Griselda Sufaj and data science freshman Zaynab Tashtanova expressed concern about the group presentation they were supposed to give in their Monday class.
“We’re gonna have to do a discussion over Zoom, which is gonna really suck because you don't know if people are gonna be, like, discussing a lot,” said Tashtanova. Human biology senior Mia Sabora has a clinical emergency medicine course on Sundays at Fee Hall, but the lack of power prevented her lecture from being held in-person. The lecture is only held once a week, Sabora said, making her “nervous.” When she heard about the power outage, Sabora, who lives off campus, picked up her pre-health fraternity little and brought her back to Sabora’s apartment, where there was power and food for a movie night.
“I didn’t know what the dining hall situation was on campus, so I fed her, took care of her,” Sabora said. Hospitality business freshman Tiana Andrews, who works at the Owen Hall Sparty’s, said her shift began at 7:30 p.m. — despite the power being out — to get rid of all the freezer food. “There was a truck that came by to save the proteins, like all the meats and stuff,” Andrews said.
“We’re still throwing food out in the morning at other Sparty’s, like for example Owen.” Psychology sophomore Valerie Ware wasn’t surprised to see that Sparty’s had to throw away all of its refrigerated food after having to do the same herself. Still, Ware found it especially frustrating since she relies on Sparty’s for breakfast due to early morning classes. READ MORE Veterinary nursing sophomore Ginny Tucker said she didn’t feel the lingering effects of the power outage this morning, but is dreading the cold shower she knows she will have to take tonight, especially as it’s her hair wash day.
Advertising management sophomore Shruti Vitaykumar said she washed her hair last night at 5 p.m. with nothing else to do during the power outage, not knowing the hot water was gone. “Since yesterday I’ve been freezing and even today, there’s no hot water,” Vitaykumar said. “I’ve been sitting in layers and I’m freezing, so I hope it comes back quickly.” James Madison College freshman Omolola Fore Ogunfolabi was watching TV with her roommate when the power went out.
But they didn’t realize what had happened until they opened their mini fridge and saw the lights were off. “We went outside because we heard some voices in the hallway, and people started to come together and look around and as time went on a little bit, things got a little fun,” Ogunfolabi said. “We all came together in the opposite hallway and we started playing Granny.” “Granny” is a horror-survival game where players attempt to escape Granny’s house without getting caught.
The game has regained popularity as people recreate it in real life. Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
Ogunfolabi said some people were playing music and having a great time, because of their spontaneous decision to play a scary survival game, it took them a while to realize there was no WiFi, no hot water and no way to charge their phones. Biochemistry freshman Nicholas Kavakis, who was outside of West Holmes Hall when the power initially went out, also said people on his floor “started mingling in the hallway.” But the power outage did not signal a peaceful night for everyone. At Shaw Hall, students returning to their dorms for the night were interrupted by multiple fire alarms.
Each time, students crawled out of bed to wait outside. Asking what the cause of the alarms was, students were told it was most likely people “just fixing stuff,” digital storytelling sophomore Alysza Eddy said. When the alarm went off for the third time, Eddy knew she was in for a long night.
While waiting for the alarms to cease, a Resident Assistant told students not to come outside if the alarms continued to go off, Eddy said. “I feel like that’s the most prominent time that a fire can happen," Eddy said. "Like somebody has a candle and they forgot to take it out and they knocked it over, especially in the dark." Environmental geoscience freshman Nora Blackport said she felt unprepared when the power went out: “I don’t really know what went down, what transpired, but it doesn’t feel fully normal.” Chapman echoed that sentiment, saying unexpected things were bound to happen, but more could have been done.
“There should be a little bit more of a plan in place for when things do go wrong, or you know, teachers should have Zoom meetings already set up in case things happen like this,” Chapman said. “But we’ll figure it out, and it’ll be okay.” Discussion Share and discuss “Lingering effects of power outage persist for MSU students” on social media.
Source: The State News
