TO: Campus Community
FR: Monir Ahmed, Vice President for Administration and Finance/CFO; Karen Moranski, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Friday, March 1 at approximately 7:42 p.m., the Rohnert Park, Cotati, and Penngrove communities suffered a widespread power outage that also impacted the campus. Pacific Gas and Electric classified this outage as weather-related. Those campus areas with generators operated without issue until the power was restored 45 minutes later. We did not lose the campus network or phone capabilities. Some campus programming has been impacted by the power outage to a varying degree.
Around the same time, Darwin Hall was impacted by a smell of smoke, which was caused by a pump failure in an air handler unit on the roof. The Rancho Adobe Fire Department, Sonoma State Police Department, and members of the boiler plant staff responded and quickly identified the issue. No fire occurred, and the other building operating systems were functional on generator power. The pump is being repaired, and building services -- including labs -- are operational.
All residential areas around campus were impacted during the power outage. Unfortunately, an event at the GMC was not able to continue, but an event in the Student Center Ballroom proceeded.
This morning, Facilities Management and others were on the campus assessing any weather-or power-related issues. Besides some pooling of water in specific areas, the campus seems to have done well.
Many thanks to the staff at Facilities Management, GMC, Student Center, Risk Management, the School of Science and Technology, and the Police Department for working together to make sure the campus was safe and operational.