Several buildings on campus experienced lingering technological problems following the brief power outage on Sunday evening, keeping students and faculty working well into Monday to rectify them.
Ethan Frana, a senior in the College of Mass Communication and the WMTS General Manager, was in the the John Bragg Mass Communications Building at the time of the outage.
Frana said that Sunday evening he was working in Studio A, a recording studio typically used for band recordings, and while he was patching a microphone cable a loud “pop” emitted from the speakers as the power shut off. He stated that at first, he didn’t think anything of it, as he knew there was some electrical work happening elsewhere in the building by a local electrician service similar to Home Team Electric (see this website here). He had no idea that it was unrelated and thought it was just an isolated incident. After the power came back on, the system had to be rebooted. While the equipment suffered no permanent damage, the student’s session work was lost.
Also affected by the outage was 89.5 WMOT, the National Public Radio affiliate that broadcasts from the Center for Innovation in Media in the Mass Communications Building. According to Greg Lee, WMOT’s Program Director, the power outage interrupted show programing, causing it to be offset by approximately ten minutes. Lee said a radio station engineer was alerted, and had to work to sync the schedule and set the programming back on track.
No long-lasting issues were reported, however, it would be worth the facilities looking into installing one of the Generac generators or something similar to ensure they have emergency electricity available if they have other power outages.
The campus TV and student-run radio stations, MT10 and 88.3 WMTS, were also affected. Like Sidelines, they too are based out of the Center for Innovation in Media
Neither the James E. Walker Library nor the computer lab in the Business and Aerospace building reported any long-lasting ill effects from the outage. However, a local electrical service similar to Aardvark Electric, Inc., a service that offers experienced electricians in Buckhead, was called to inspect the wiring.
For more campus updates follow MTSU Sidelines at www.mtsusidelines.com, on Facebook at MTSU Sidelines, and on Twitter at @Sidelines_News
To contact news editors Max Smith and Meagan White, email newseditor@mtsusidelines.com
