By Kassondra Granata and Justin Muszynski
President Jack Miller held a conference for students and faculty in the Constitution Room in Memorial Hall answering questions or concerns due to the lack of power from the storm.
His focal point was that all the electricity that the university produces is going to the residence halls, food services and the police instead of going to the academic buildings. Miller also reiterated that the University did not have any estimates from Connecticut Light and Power as to when the power would come back on until Wednesday, an hour before the meeting. Their guess is Sunday at midnight.
“We have no electricity right now from CL&P,” said Miller. “You can’t power the whole campus with the amount of electricity that we have, so we made the decision on Saturday night and Sunday morning to keep residence halls and food services as warm as we can keep them and safe with food being served and police.”
Thursday’s 6 a.m. announcement, according to Miller, will state whether or not classes have been cancelled until Monday.
“If the power isn’t on tomorrow at 6 a.m. then the message you will all get is ‘we’re closed until Monday,’” said Miller. “By the way, when we do have weather related closings, we generally make the closing at 5 a.m. in the morning, so you’re actually getting these notifications about 12 hours earlier than when you typically get them, while they may be for half a day at a time.”
Miller defended the university’s logic behind updating cancellation information every 12 hours after negative feedback from faculty and students in attendance. He says the decision was made entirely by him and the reasoning behind it is because the power can come back at any time and if classes have already been canceled for the day then there’s nothing they can do about it.
Another concern that was brought up was the upcoming registration period that is scheduled to start on Monday. The overall input from the faculty and students in the room was the concern that students couldn’t meet with their advisers this week that and whether or not registration will be delayed. Miller couldn’t say for sure what the university would do but assured everyone they would find a solution.
Mark McLaughlin, Associate Vice President of Marketing & Communications, addressed this concern by citing the university’s website which informs students to count on registration being pushed back “at least one week.” He also assured the students that all of their concerns will be addressed.
“We’re all in this together and we are planning, looking into pushing advising a week back and diving into this,” said McLaughlin. “This is a very difficult time; we are going to be here to support you.”
SGA President Bergenn showed support for the administration and Miller during the meeting.
“I appreciate what the administration has done and their efforts towards the situation,” said Bergenn. “Not many other presidents would come out and do this.”
One of Bergenn’s concerns was the liability of communication between the administration and students.
“Not all students have smartphones,” said Bergenn. “If I didn’t have an iPhone I wouldn’t have received any of the updates I did.”
McLaughlin agreed with Bergenn’s statement and responded that the best form of communication is through the “word of mouth.”
“If I had to bet, I don’t think Thursday and Friday is looking good for classes,” stated Miller at the end of the meeting.
