UR students react to campus-wide blackout that forced classes to be canceled

With just 15 minutes left until curtain call at the Alice Jepson Theatre, the stage went dark during the University of Richmond’s production of “Urinetown” after a snake caused equipment at the steam plant to short circuit and sparked a campus-wide power outage on April 20.

Junior Josh Walker was in the audience when the blackout happened. Initially, he figured it was part of the show but quickly realized something was wrong.

“At first I thought it was a gimmick,” Walker said. “The lights turned off for a solid ten seconds and I figured it was an accident by the lighting team but they finished out with no lights, no mics, no music.” 

The outage started a little after 5 p.m. and affected more than 20 buildings on campus, forcing some students to sleep in dorms with no air conditioning, hot water or light.

“The water is very cold,” Walker, who lives in Residence Hall 1, said. “I had friends try to use the shower but it was freezing. If the water doesn't get better I am going to just hit up a friend and shower there.”

Junior Leah Le planned her day around the outage so she wouldn't have to spend so much time in her room which is in the basement of Residence Hall 1.

“I went to Jepson [Hall] to study until like 2 or 3 [a.m.] and decided to go back and have a short sleep and then get up early again,” Le said.

Senior Director of Media Relations & Strategic Communications Sunni Brown said in an email to The Collegian that the snake entered a “piece of equipment through a small opening, which caused it to short-circuit, not explode.”

Power has been restored to most academic buildings on campus and all residence halls should be back in operation by tonight, according to an email from UR Communications.

“We have brought in several large generators, and power has been restored to almost all residence halls — all of which are expected to be back online by this evening,” the email said.

Classes are also expected to be held tomorrow, the email said, with the registrar's office working to relocate classes that are usually held in buildings still affected by the outage, including the Robins School of Business.

It's unclear how long UR will rely on the generators for power, or what a timeline for repairs may look like. The Collegian reached out to UR Communications for clarity.

Buildings that are still affected can be found here. 

Contact managing editor andrea.padilla@richmond.edu