By Prince Omoruyi

McNeese moved all operations online Wednesday after a campus-wide power outage late Tuesday night.  

About 11:30 p.m. a transformer failure at an Entergy substation knocked out power to the entire campus.  

Campus police immediately focused on security and on coordinating with Facilities and Plant Operations, Chief of Police Williams Scheufens said.  

“Officers increased patrols across campus and paid closer attention to residence halls to ensure student safety during the outage, and there were no safety incidents or emergency calls related to the power outage,” Scheufens said. 

Richard Rhoden, director of facilities and plant operations, said the emergency lighting systems on campus functioned as intended, allowing students and staff to safely exit buildings during the outage. 

According to Rhoden, facilities staff contacted Entergy and a private high-voltage contractor immediately after the outage was reported, and the damage was eventually located in underground high-voltage cables, where three cables had burned and separated. 

Power was restored by Wednesday evening, but a planned 30-minute outage was necessary Thursday night to transition back to the university’s normal power supply.

The university is currently planning a $3.6 million electrical upgrade project aimed at improving reliability during future outages. 

Senior computer science major Damilola Osoba was studying in her dorm when the power went out. 

“At first, I thought it was just an issue in my room, but I later realized the outage was campus wide,” Osoba said. “Because both my laptop and phone batteries were low and there was no Wi-Fi, I had to preserve power since I did not know how long the outage would last.” 

Despite the issue, Osoba said she thoughtthe university did a good job communicating updates throughout.  

“This was an unexpected situation, and it highlights the importance of staying prepared when events like this occur,” Osoba said.