Upper Campus Operates on Partial Power

05/21/2014 

The replacement of a faulty electrical switch responsible for this week's campus power outage has been fast-tracked, and full power could be restored to all campus buildings as early as Tuesday, May 27.

Until the repair is complete, all upper campus buildings will have limited power. Faculty, staff and students in those buildings should continue to restrict electricity use as much as possible. Anyone who has been assigned an alternative classroom or workspace on lower campus, which has full power, should continue in that location until advised otherwise.

Faculty and staff should power down their computers Friday afternoon before the long weekend.

Further details of what restricted energy use means for individuals are available at SUNY Cortland’s emergency website: http://emergency.cortland.edu. 

Please check the Website over the holiday weekend for updates on when full power will be restored and how the campus will return to normal operation.

By curtailing electrical use on upper campus, SUNY Cortland will be able to provide basic electrical service – essentially lights and computers – in all campus buildings until the work is finished. 

This temporary solution will require a degree of patience and sacrifice from all members of the campus community. 

It is critically important that all faculty, staff and students eliminate all unnecessary electricity use on upper campus. The College is closely monitoring energy use in all affected buildings and may be forced to take building equipment offline if it threatens our overall capacity limit – possibly with very little warning.

By unplugging coffee makers, electric fans, microwave ovens and other devices and by using available facilities on the lower campus – which is unaffected by the problem – members of the campus community will help us avoid this. Before making copies, please consider alternatives such as having documents duplicated at an off-campus location or doing the work at a later date.

Necessary work on the electrical system could take as long as a week. During that time, please be aware of the following measures:

• Air conditioning will not be available in any upper campus buildings. People with medical concerns related to warm temperatures should contact Human Resources for possible temporary reassignment to a workstation in a lower campus building.

• Only two upper campus buildings will have elevator service: The Education Building, to meet the needs of the Child Care Center, and Miller, because of its height.

• Summer session classes have been temporarily relocated to Park Center and the Professional Studies Building, which will be air-conditioned and have full electrical service.  A number of other campus events have also been relocated or rescheduled.

• There will be no ASC food service on campus until further notice. Hilltop in Brockway Hall, the only dining facility currently operating, closed Wednesday at 1:30 p.m.

• The Tomik fitness center in the Van Hoesen/Cornish complex will close. Woods fitness center in Park Center will be open for all people who normally use Tomik.

• Any students staying overnight on campus have been moved to Smith Tower, which is served by the same electrical feed that powers lower campus. All other campus residence buildings will have limited power.