 "Photo: Jay Jones")
Classes will resume Friday after a power outage shut down the entire campus Thursday forcing the cancellation of classes.
Trouble first occurred Wednesday night at approximately 8:45 p.m, when across the campus flicked off and on. Five minutes later the power went down for good. And the campus went dark.
An e-mail from the University's Office of Public Relations broke the news at 6:59 a.m. Thursday morning this way: "Due to a major power outage affecting most of the campus including the cafeteria, classes are cancelled this morning. We will keep you updated throughout the day as we gain new information concerning the status and duration of the outage."
Throughout Thursday the power remained down and faculty and students relied on email press from the Office of Public Relations to keep abreast of the situation. Initially only morning classes were cancelled, but later afternoon classes were cancelled as well.
Throughout the afternoon, faculty and students, unaware of the afternoon cancellation, arrived at campus expecting attend classes.
But many NCCU students said they didn't mind the break from classes.
"We should have blackout every Wednesday," joked criminal justice freshman Keith Tucker.
Faculty also took advantage of the unexpected break.
"It's an unfortunate series of events but these kinds of things happen. I am sure we will make the most of this day," said Andrew Williams, a professor in the department of English and Mass Communication.
Pearson Cafeteria staff, working on with emergency generators, prepared and then delivered lunches to the residence halls across the campus.
According to a Duke Power crew member stationed near the new parking deck, the problem started when a component in the master switch system failed. NCCU's master switch is located just south of the new parking deck.
The Duke Power crew member, who asked not to be named, said that the failure was NCCU's responsibility, not Duke Power's. He said they were stationed there to back-up NCCU electricians in case of an emergency.
At 2:20 p.m. NCCU technicians huddled over a blueprint of the University's electric grid next to New Residence Complex and said that the switch has been fixed for hours. They said they were attempting to fire up the University's power in an orderly manner.
With them was Clarence King, assistant director for facilities of Residential Life, who said the main concern was getting the power back to the dorms. Freshmen and sophomores living on campus had been without power since the 8:45 p.m. failure.
Another concern was the status of the Eagle's season opener scheduled for 7 p.m. A 1:05 p.m. e-mail from that Office of Public Relations stated that the Department of Athletics had made arrangements for backup power. But by late afternoon NCCU's power was restored and life began returning to normal.
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