Power losses in Harrison send dozens to Sheraton

Residents from 16 rooms in Harrison College House experienced a power shortage on Friday afternoon and were offered alternative housing in the Sheraton University City Hotel.

The outages likely occurred as a result of maintenance operations involving the heating system.

Although repairs were scheduled to be completed today, power was back on Friday evening.

However, Facilities officials said that until completion, all repairs were to be considered only a "temporary fix" and that further losses of power were possible.

On Friday, students received an e-mail from Housing and Conference Services Senior Residential Services Administrator Derek Hunsberger, who informed them about the existence of a power shortage in their rooms and notified them that repairs were under way.

"Housing and Conference Services has received word from Facilities early this morning that to fully repair the power in your rooms will require the acquisition of replacement parts," Hunsberger wrote to residents on Saturday. "At this point, they are hopeful to have the needed parts this weekend."

Many students said they were surprised to come home to a dark room.

"Friday afternoon around 6 p.m., I tried to turn on the lights in the hallway, but they weren't working. I thought they had burned out, but then I saw none of the lights were working," Engineering sophomore Richard Brushett said. "I went down to the front desk, and they told me only a couple of rooms were affected. I called Facilities, but I didn't hear back until Saturday."

Students were offered accommodations at the Sheraton so that power usage would be reduced to a minimum.

However, some residents decided to remain in their rooms since the repairs did not hinder their access to electricity.

"The power has been on since Friday in the evening," College Anton Kapliy said. "We had no problems."

To ease any discomfort, Facilities officials offered to "take reports of food items that were lost ... . These reports will be sent to risk management to be evaluated for possible reimbursement," Hunsberger wrote.

Some students said they were unhappy with the situation.

"This is getting pretty ridiculous," Brushett said. "This year my room was already flooded, but we didn't get a trip to the Sheraton that time."

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