Classes and activities across Hamline will be canceled a day earlier than expected before Thanksgiving break. On Nov. 26, the campus will shut down for a temporary power outage north of Englewood Ave. beginning at 8 a.m.
The scheduled outage follows a recent, unplanned power outage caused by a traffic accident on Nov. 1 that revealed some greater mechanical issues throughout the Midway. While the electrical systems are currently functioning, Hamline hopes to stay a few steps ahead of a potential greater issue down the road with this planned maintenance with the help of Xcel Energy.
“It is going to function now, but we are concerned that in the future it could go out. If it goes out in the middle of the winter, we would lose heat to buildings, which is a big deal. That is why it was expedited fairly quickly,” Director of Facilities Operations and Construction Management Rob Johnson said.
Residence halls — except for the Hamline Apartments — will lose power during the outage. To help students that are still staying on campus, Public Safety and the Resident Assistants on duty to let students into the dwellings.
Dining services will also be closed during this outage. Residential Life encourages students staying in the dorms to stock up on groceries from Leo’s Corner and the Food Resource Center (FRC) in the days leading up to the scheduled outage. While the FRC will also be closed on Nov. 26, single serve, just add hot water, meals will be available at the 24/7 Food Access table in Sorin Commons beginning the afternoon of Tuesday, Nov. 25.
Hamline Public Safety will still be active and accessible during this shutdown to continue to preserve the safety of the students still on campus.
“Even with the power down, we’ll still be out and visible. Officers will be doing increased patrols, wellness checks and helping students with access or safety concerns. Our priority is making sure students feel supported and can reach us easily,” Director of Public Safety Illiana Cantu Delgado said.
This outage precedes the planned Thanksgiving break, making it one of the most ideal times for this outage, as many students already had plans to head home for the scheduled four day break starting on Thursday, Nov. 27. Director of Residential Life Yolanda Hansen believes the proximity to the planned break will limit the number of students on campus for the outage.
“We are thinking the majority of students will leave sooner rather than later to avoid [the outage] because I am sure they just wouldn’t want to be on campus with power being gone for five hours, so they probably will head home. But if not, there are resources and things here,” Hansen said.
While there were several hiccups following power returning after the Nov. 1 outage, Hamline hopes to use what they learned to stay ahead of the game this time around.
“We are going to have full staff, we know, based on the last outage, what things will come on automatically and what things will have to be manually brought back online,” Johnson said. “We will have mechanical contractors here, including our electricians and our maintenance team, elevator contractors, fire alarm system contractors. So when that power goes down, if we have any alarms or anything that has to be taken care of, it can be taken care of right away.”
The University Leadership Team hopes that this unexpected change in the schedule can give students an extra needed break as the end of the semester draws near.
“Despite the unusual and unanticipated circumstances, we hope you’ll make the most of this opportunity to pause and take a breath as we head into the home stretch of a busy – and successful – fall semester. We appreciate you and all you contribute to our Piper community,” ULT said in a campus wide email on Wednesday, Nov. 19.
