Dear Spartan Community,
Yesterday afternoon, our campus experienced a campus-wide power outage that lasted several hours. A central connection point at the T.B. Simon Power Plant failed, and that failure cut off the necessary supply of power and our ability to generate electricity and steam to buildings on the East Lansing campus.
While power has been restored to most of campus, there are still impacts related to steam and hot water uses. The heating and cooling system will take additional time to be fully restored, impacting hot water to residence halls, educational buildings and dining facilities. University teams are working around the clock to restore services and assess campus conditions, and while the current disruption limits our ability to fully support normal campus operations, we are confident that we can safely deliver services in our facilities.
Due to the ongoing impacts of a significant power outage and the resulting loss of hot water service affecting portions of our campus, Michigan State University will transition to online instruction and remote work, where possible, through Monday evening. These transitions will start today at 9 a.m., and go through Monday evening at 11 p.m. and are limited to the East Lansing campus only. This choice has been made to reduce the impact to our systems during this temporary impact to service.
Events and activities happening across campus may also be impacted and are being handled on a case-by-case basis. Employees with questions about their job responsibilities should contact their supervisor.
For those living on campus in our residence halls, we understand this will cause inconveniences. We are adapting our dining operations to continue providing services throughout this temporary period.
The safety and wellbeing of our community continues to be our top priority, and I want to sincerely thank our MSU community for their patience and cooperation throughout the power outage and the coming days as we work to bring back steam and hot water.
During the power outage, we deployed a number of generators across campus, prioritizing safety, security, and emergency responsiveness. We also benefited from the support and aid of multiple community partners during the outage. I also want to recognize the work of the crews at Infrastructure, Planning and Facilities, the MSU Department of Police and Public Safety, Emergency Management, the Office of Environmental Health and Safety and the many staff who worked throughout the afternoon and overnight to manage and resolve this outage and the impacts on campus steam and hot water.
We also recognize that the outage may have affected research underway on campus. Researchers are encouraged to check on temperature-sensitive samples, equipment and instruments, long-running experiments, and data or computing systems. If you identify any impact or need support, please contact your department or the Office of Research and Innovation.
We know this unexpected disruption creates challenges for many members of our community. We are committed to providing regular updates as more information becomes available and as restoration efforts progress. University leaders are working closely with facilities, emergency management, public health officials and utility partners to monitor conditions and determine when it is appropriate to resume normal operations.
Students living in university housing will continue to receive information directly from Residential and Hospitality Services (RHS) regarding available services and resources. Additional information for faculty, staff and students will be shared through university communication channels and posted on the university website.
We appreciate your flexibility, patience and understanding as we work through these challenges together. Our goal is to restore normal operations as quickly and safely as possible, and we will continue to keep you informed every step of the way.
Sincerely,
Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Ph.D.
President
Michigan State University