The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 76, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, February 10, 1989 Page: 1 of 16
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SINCE 1916
VOLUME 76, NO
WE NEVER GUARANTEED A SWIMSUIT ISSUE
FEBRUARY 10, 1989
%
Otis, My Man!
Otis Day and the Nights warm up the crowd at the 'Worlds Largest Shout-Out' Saturday. Sub freezing temperatures on
the island failed to dampen the crowd's enthusiasm at last weekend's Mardi Gras Galveston Celebration. Revelers
gathered for the final weekend of the annual event to hear the band of Animal House fame. As night fell and the mercury
dropped even further, crowds lined the parade route to be entertained by Rice's own MOB and other marching bands.
Floats bearing costumed volunteers pelted the fluid-fortified, frozen crowd with traditional beads and dubloons.
Power failure leaves Rice
in the dark for four hours
Outage reveals inadequacies of campus
emergency lighting systems
by Anu Bajaj
A power outage Monday, Febru-
ary 6, left the entire campus dark for
four hours and raised questions
about the preparedness of the uni-
versity for emergency situations.
Although power has been restored
to the entire campus, the cause of the
outage is still unknown.
No injuries occurred during the
blackout, but several buildings on
campus were left without emer-
gency lighting and the Rice Univer-
sity Police Department had no emer-
gency power.
Rice University Police Depart-
ment without generator
Chief of RUPD Mary Voswinkel
said RUPD had no problems doing
its job despite being left without
power for nearly four hours.
"The phones don't ring when you
don't have power so you have to
continually push the buttons to see if
anyone is on the line, which can be a
problem. We assigned one person to
each of the consoles, and manned
calls that way," Voswinkel said.
Jn addition to manning the
phones, RUPD had to go through all
of the buildings and confirm that no
one was trapped in elevators or other
areas where it is difficult to get out.
RUPD then closed off these areas.
Voswinkel said although there
were no property losses or injuries
during the outages, an emergency
generator would have made RUPD's
job easier. "Of course we would like
to have one. It would make our job
easier, but it is a large expenditure
for the university...they connected
us to a generator before when there
was a planned power outage. But
Business as usual at Rice; surrounding schools close
by Sue-Sun Yom
In record-degree weather this
week, Rice students trudged to class
through sleet and frost, despite class
cancellations by many other sur-
rounding Houston-area universities
and school districts Tuesday.
Assistant to the President Carl
MacDowell defended standard uni-
versity policy in holding classes, al-
though he admitted the administra-
tion was concerned with establish-
ing better student communication.
The university's physical plant
never completely closed, although
confusion resulted from a power
outage late Monday (see related
story, this page).
Non-essential personnel were
sent home and all classes were
cancelled Monday evening. Sewall
and Rayzor Halls were not scheduled
to hold classes Tuesday because the
buildings had no heat.
Assistant University Librarian
Kay Flowers said Fondrcn Library
was open until power failure late
Monday night
MacDowell said, "Rice is basi-
cally a residential university. Most
students are living on or close to
campus. It is a long-standing policy
that, if at all possible, Rice holds
classes. Contrary to a secondary or
elementary school, we do not have to
consider students traveling long dis-
tances to school or small children
being transported. A large urban
university, like University of Hous-
ton, also has many students living at
greater distances.
"This is the same policy used for
all natural events, such as the threat
posed by Hurricance Gilbert this
fall," MacDowell said.
Vice President of Academic Af-
fairs at University of St Thomas R.J.
Schiesen said about 80 percent of the
students commute to school. St.
Thomas cancelled classes from 3
p.m. Monday afternoon until Wed-
nesday morning.
At the University of Houston,
Assistant to the President Kent
Kessingcr said, "This cold weather
instance was so unusual, and people
in Texas aren't equipped to drive.
Many of our students are commut-
ers, and that was a factor."
UH also closed at 3 p.m. Monday
and reopened Wednesday morning.
Both schools decidcd to canccl
Tuesday classes Monday night, and
neither experienced any power fail-
ures.
Hie President's Office received
calls Monday and Tuesday from
staff, faculty, and students con-
cealed about coming to campus.
"We told them to use their own
good judgement. We told them we
didn't want anyone to put themselves
in jeopardy," MacDowell said.
Even the library did not experi-
ence a serious staff shortage Mon-
day night
"Staff members had to be acco-
modated. We double-checked their
schedules and found substitutes for
those who couldn't make it. One did
not make it here," Flowers said.
Poor communication between
the administration and students
confused the situation.
An announcement was made at 4
p.m. Monday, from the President's
Office, encouraging "non-essential"
personnel to go home. Some stu-
dents, assuming non-essential per-
sonnel included faculty, said they
believed classes had been cancelled
for the afternoon.
MacDowell said, "The informa-
tion to cancel all evening classes
became available late Monday after-
noon. Late in the day, it's difficult to
put this kind of information out be-
cause it's hard to reach people."
KTRU announced the cancella-
tions, but MacDowell said-the ad-
ministration had avoided commer-
cial stations. KTRU lost power with
the rest of the campus at 9 p.m.
Monday.
Many students said notification
by the administration had been poor.
Hanszen College junior Dominic
Digesualdo said, "A lot of people
were running around confused. The
university needs to come up with a
better way of letting students know
what'sgoing on. My friends called up
Tuesday morning, and they had the
same recorded announcement from
Monday. They were supposed to
make the decision about classes at
5:30 a.m. Tuesday."
I>ovett College senior Christina
Gratke said, "I think the administra-
tion handled this poorly. To have
classes was stupid since no one
could study after the power went out.
It was pretty ridiculous that there
was nothing on television and the
radio. I had to make eight or nine
telephone calls to find out whether
there were classes."
MacDowell said, "The use of
radio and television stations that are
preoccupied with announcing can-
cellations would have caused more
confusion by grouping Rice indis-
criminately with those schools."
MacDowell said the administra-
tion would review its actions.
"Each and every time one of these
events happens, the administration
does review what happened and how
it responded. This event will be part
of that proccss.
"We are concerned about better
communications. Certainly the
power outage complicated the han-
dling of the situation," MacDowell
said.
The cold snap caught many off-
guard, particularly students expect-
ing a temperate Houston.
Wiess College senior Steve Rader
said, "I hated it. I like Houston be-
cause it's warm. Our heat went out.
We froze. We bitched. A day later, it
got fixed. It was damn cold."
Jones College sophomore Liz
Vazquez said, "I expected warm
weather in Houston, so I was a little
disappointed. I feel sorry for the
SEE COLD, PAGE: 8
when it did go out this time, they
were too busy taking aire of other
stuff, so it was just,better to let us sit
it out," she said.
Director of the Physical Plant Ed
Samfield said they have the capacity
to use the cogenerator to power part
of the university. However, the co-
generator also lost power.
"The cogenerator has the capac-
ity to generate its own electricity, but
it went out, too. It's not meant to
replace Houston Lighting and Power
but to supplement it If we had been
unable to restore HL&P power, we
could have turned on power to a
limited area of the university," he
said.
Fondren Library—insufficient
emergency lighting
Because of the power outage
Fondren Library closed early. Assis-
tant University Librarian Kay Flow-
ers and Library Assistant Alexis
Lattner made the decision to evacu-
ate the building about 10:30 p.m.
Although Flowers and Littner
were able to evacuate the building
without any mishaps, the installation
of emergency lights in Fondren i>
not complete, so in some areas the
lighting is poor.
"The emergency lighting system
has been gradually installed over a
period of several years. Since they
have had to spread it out, only the
most important places have emer-
gency lighting like by the fire exits,
by elevators that are close to stairs,
and in long halls.
"The building is still being re-
modeled. There is a lot more work
tied to the safety codes, and they are
adding more emergency lighting. 1
think four months ago, we had a
short outage and the architect was in
the building so he went around and
noted the areas that needed emer-
gency lighting," Flowers said.
Lovett, SRC—insufficient
emergency lighting
Sid Richardson and I.ovett Col-
leges also had problems with their
emergency lighting.
Lovett College Co-Master Gerry
Jump said, "I don't even know if there
is any [emergency lighting]."
Without emergency lighting in
SEE POWER . PAGE 8
BACKPAGE
Our first week of
Valentine's Day
% personals
Could
it be your
luckv day?
SO WHAT DO
WE DO NOW?
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McGarrity, Patrick & Sendek, Joel. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 76, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, February 10, 1989, newspaper, February 10, 1989; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245713/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.