Vanderbilt University Public Safety sent an email to the Vanderbilt community on March 26 at 6:48 p.m. CDT announcing an “unplanned electrical outage.” Approximately 30 minutes before, the power went out in buildings across campus, and the email labeled the affected areas as “much of main and Peabody Campus,” with the reason for the outage specified as the failure of a transformer on main campus.
“Major portions of campus have been affected by a loss of power,” the VUPS email reads. “Crews are working to restore electricity as quickly as possible.”
An AlertVU message was sent to the campus community at 7:52 p.m. CDT warning of the power outage. The message said the outage had affected Vanderbilt, as well as VUMC facilities.
“Crews are responding at this time,” the AlertVU message reads. “The power outage may last up to two hours.”
In an email to campus residents at 8:06 p.m. CDT, Student Affairs and Housing and Residential Experience said Vanderbilt University Maintenance Operations and Nashville Electric Service crews were working to bring the power back online. They also directed anyone facing a life-threatening emergency to dial 911 and encouraged residents to sign up for AlertVU notifications.
AlertVU provided an update at 8:33 p.m. CDT with “emergency suggestions,” including using flashlights in dark areas and limiting elevator usage.
Senior Nikki Weitzenhoffer expressed frustration with the inconveniences caused by the electrical outage.
“[The outage] ruined my day because I had no way to charge my computer,” Weitzenhoffer said. “My friends and I went to Ben and Jerry’s to charge our devices.”
First-year Mallory Rodriguez said she had left her dance practice expecting to eat at McGugin Center when she found out about the electrical outage. She said the dining hall had closed, and she ordered food from Chick-fil-A instead.
“I was really upset because I wanted to go to bed early and this pushed me back. Plus, I rely on the school Wifi, and I had to use my hotspot [which] was very slow,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez described the lack of lighting in many of the first-year buildings, saying Murray House was completely dark, and she went to Commons Center because there was more light there.
“Luckily, the lights are back on now, and I think I can still go to bed early,” Rodriguez said. “But it was a really unfortunate situation. I had really high hopes for how tonight was going to go, and [the outage] was a total [180].”
Power returned to campus buildings at various times. Kissam Student Center saw a return to power at approximately 7:44 p.m. CDT, while Commons Center had its power restored at approximately 8:26 p.m. CDT.
At 10:22 p.m. CDT, AlertVU sent a final message announcing that power had been restored to main campus and VUMC.
“The community may continue to experience intermittent outages as crews work to fully stabilize the system,” the message reads.
Despite the restoration of power, students in Highland Quadrangle reported a lack of hot water the following morning. Students Affairs and HRE notified residents of the outage at 8:59 a.m. CDT and encouraged students to use the Recreation and Wellness Center to take hot showers. An email from Student Affairs and HRE at 9:59 a.m. CDT provided an update that hot water had been restored.
Sophomore Puspa Shah, a resident of Lewis House, shared her experience with the hot water outage.
“The hot water outage is extremely inconvenient, especially because a lot of people right now are sick,” Shah said. “I am happy we are so close to the Rec[reaction] Center, especially when I think of other dorm areas that didn’t have hot water and had to walk much further.”
