On Sunday, Florida A&M University was affected by a school-wide power outage. University officials said the outage occurred around 1:50 pm. Electricity was not restored to the campus until 3:05 p.m. and some students said they were frustrated with the interruption of the school’s power source.
Andria Frazier, 19, a pharmacy student with a minor in business administration, said the outage was a major inconvenience.
“I found out the power went off when my computer shut off,” said Frazier, a native of Montgomery, Ala. “I was working on a project for class. I have a chemistry exam coming up and my professor isn’t going to take this outage as an excuse.”
Frazier, who has been living in Palmetto Phase III since the summer, said she was very aggravated by the experience. The outage caused the lights, computers, and elevators in the complex to stop functioning. A woman was trapped in an elevator and Steven Pargett, a resident assistant, alerted Tallahassee firefighters who came in to get her out.
Pargett said the woman was able to communicate with students through the elevator doors and that they let her know that help was on the way. He said the outage was completely unexpected and that it may hurt some students.
“This is a bad day for procrastinators across the campus,” said Pargett, 19, who has served Phase III as a resident assistant for two semesters.
Jasmyne Jones, 18, another Phase III resident, was affected by the outage. She said it was a setback and it put a hold on one of her upcoming assignments.
“I was going to the library for a group project that is due on Tuesday,” said Jones, a freshman occupational wellness student from Memphis, Tenn. “The outage made me very angry and I was even more angry when they told me they didn’t know when the power was coming back on.”
Students at Palmetto waited until the issue was resolved while students in the Coleman Library were asked to move to the second floor of the building in regards to safety.
Dale Thomas, a reference librarian, said the library has its own protocol when it comes to matters such as a power outage.
“We have to call the campus numbers, the maintenance department, FAMU police and get information from them, contact supervisors and possibly call Dr. Lauren Sapp, the library’s director,” said Thomas, who has worked in Coleman Library for over five years.
Thomas said the number one concern was the safety of the students.
“We were concerned about students and safety,” he said. “We had the staff go through the building to let them know what was happening and let them know to come to the second floor so we could monitor them.”
Despite some students viewing the situation as a downer, Pargett said there was some good that came out of it.
“It’s been liberating,” he said. “Some of us have been bonding during the outage. This is a beautiful day, so I couldn’t have chosen for a better day for the power to go out.”