Most of Binghamton University was left without power Monday morning into the early afternoon after winter weather caused a tree branch to fall on an off-campus power line.
The University worked with the New York State Electric & Gas Corporation to isolate and solve the problem, bringing electricity back to campus around 2 p.m.
‘There are two big electric lines that NYSEG feeds the campus with. One went down and when we went to switch to the alternate one, it went down too,’ said Karen Fennie, a spokeswoman for Physical Facilities. ‘NYSEG came by and fixed the problem and we re-energized the line.’
Power was lost in most buildings on campus, including all dormitories, at 9:45 a.m. While dining halls were able to retain power, operations were affected by difficulties with the campus server and in several dining halls cashiers were taking down student purchases by hand.
‘When the power went out, many campus services started having problems with the server,’ said Bob Griffin, marketing manager of Sodexho. ‘We’re just working through it the best that we can.’
Both the Appalachian Collegiate Center and the New University Union Food Court had to be closed because of staffing difficulties.
‘It had to do with a lot of employees being out of town or unable to get here. We had to move staff around in order to open all that we could,’ he said. ‘After classes were canceled, we had to start moving staff from inside the Brain out to residential areas.’
Classes were not officially canceled until almost noon. With both the BU Web site and server down, confusion abounded among students and faculty.
Spanish professor Carlos Alonso arrived at class to find half of his students missing.
‘The class is usually complete, or close to complete,’ he said.
Alonso was holding office hours in the Glenn G. Bartle Library tower when the University lost power.
‘I was in my office on the sixth floor and had to use the stairs to get down,’ he said.
Senior biology major Gene Bernieri was in the Information Commons when the lights went out in the Bartle Library around 10 a.m.
‘Everyone stood around looking kind of confused for a second,’ he said. ‘I have a big test on Tuesday. I wanted to go to Bartle to study for it ‘ now I can’t.’
Despite the blackout, however, some students remain unfazed by the severe weather.
‘It’s not really affecting my life because I’m so used to it,’ said sophomore and Buffalo native Kimberly Williams.