Following a power outage both Tuesday and Wednesday in Long Beach State’s residence halls, housing officials said they were notified one day before the scheduled outage, causing students to receive a late notice as well.
Occurring on the evenings of Tuesday, Oct. 20 and Wednesday, Oct. 21, the outage lasted from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., and students were only permitted to rent flashlights from the housing service center as candles are prohibited in the dorms.
According to Executive Director of Housing and Residential Life Corry Colonna, the power outage occurred due to Southern California Edison having to perform “scheduled maintenance” on Atherton Street.
“It is incredibly inconvenient,” Colonna said. “It is out of our hands though. If I had my preference, I would have preferred it to be done over a break or over a weekend even, but this wasn’t one of those things we had input on with Southern [California] Edison.
Several on-campus residents voiced their concerns about the late notice and said they wished they were given notice sooner than just one day prior to the outage to be able to adequately prepare.
Officials notified residents Monday evening that there would be an outage on Tuesday, then sent a follow-up email Tuesday afternoon clarifying that the outage was set to occur Wednesday night as well.
A third email was sent out Tuesday evening to confirm that dinner hours were only rescheduled for Tuesday and not Wednesday.
Some residents, like Lauren Benefield, claimed the outage was inconvenient and felt “frustrated” that they were unable to complete homework during the evening for these two days.
“I can’t really do chemistry problems by hand when I’ll barely be able to see my notebook,” the fourth-year biology major said.
When asked about the late notice, Colonna said that Southern California Edison did not notify housing officials of the scheduled outage until Monday, the day before.
“Not sure if there was a more timely notice to the university, but housing contacted students as soon as we had the details,” he said.
Colonna said that “these things do happen from time to time” and that, as a resident of the community surrounding campus, he understands residential students’ concerns and frustrations.
“I know it is frustrating for students and for residents who live in the area,” he said. “I’m thankful for my staff and their assistance during outages and for all our students who are so understanding during difficult times.”