4:30 p.m. Update: Power was restored to campus around 4:30 p.m. Monday.

University officials canceled Monday’s 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. finals around 3 p.m. after campus and surrounding area experienced a power outage Monday. According to University Communications, students are to work with professors to reschedule missed finals.  

The power went down across campus and student housing around 1 p.m. Monday, and as of around 4:10 p.m. power had not been restored. Power was restored temporarily to the campus apartments from around 3:40 p.m. till 4 p.m. Monday.

Monday was USI’s first official day of Fall 2022 final exams.

Destiny Williams, junior public relations and advertising major, said she was taking a final in a room with no windows in the Liberal Arts Building when the power went out.

“We were about maybe 10 minutes into our final,” Williams said. “It was on paper, so it made it even worse. The lights just went out, everything went black, so we all had to put our flashlights on our phones to do our final on paper.”

Williams said their professor gave the class an extra five bonus points for the distraction of finishing the final during the power outage. 

Preston Liebert, freshman electrical engineering major, said the power outage was definitely a distraction.

“Luckily the Wi-Fi is still working, so I can still get some work done, but obviously I won’t be able to work in my notebook with limited light,” Liebert said.

Monday’s power outage was the second campus power outage of Fall 2022. Campus and the surrounding area also lost power Nov. 3. Dylan Haskins, junior social work major, said if the problem keeps persisting, USI should look into other ways to secure power on campus.

“With any place that’s got students or a business with employees, they need to work as hard as they can to make sure that power’s always going to be able to be there,” Haskins said.

Gavin Davis, freshman computer science major, said he does not expect professors to be lenient in regards to the power outage.

“I think that they expect us to be ready whether the power is on or off,” Davis said. “It definitely depends on who your professor is, but I feel like most might not be so lenient.”

Micah Peals, freshman dental hygiene major, said she thinks more professors will be lenient than not.

“It depends on your professor, but I think most of them would be lenient, then again, it just depends on who you have,” Peals said.

According to CenterPoint Energy’s outage map around 1:40 p.m., power was estimated to be restored around 3:49 p.m.

Additional campus conditions due to power outage: 

• The David L. Rice Library will close at 5 p.m. Monday.
• The only main-campus dining options open Monday for dinner include The Loft’s soup, salad and grill stations. 
• The stoplight at the intersection of the Lloyd Expressway and Schutte Road was reported to not be working around 1:30 p.m. Monday. The intersection light was still not working around 3:30 p.m. Monday.
• Students who live in the Residence Halls were unable to enter their dorms with their IDs due to the power outage as of 2 p.m. Resident Assistants were opening dorm room doors with physical copies of the keys.
• Employees were allowed to leave campus around 3 p.m.