RICHMOND, Va. — Power is being restored at the University of Richmond on Monday after a snake short-circuited a critical piece of campus electrical equipment on Sunday.
The university canceled classes on Monday as a result of the outage and expect to resume classes on Tuesday.
"We have brought in several large generators, and power has been restored to almost all residence halls — all of which are expected to be back online by this evening," a university spokesperson wrote in a Monday evening email to the Spider community. "We are now focusing on restoring power to the impacted academic buildings. By deploying several large generators to buildings with high numbers of classes scheduled for tomorrow and relocating classes to other buildings, we expect that most scheduled classes will be held in person tomorrow, Tuesday, April 22."
A university spokesperson said a snake entered "a central piece of equipment that safely delivers electrical power to our campus" through a small opening and short-circuited the system.
Buildings that remain without power Monday afternoon include:
- Boatwright Memorial Library
- Cannon Memorial Chapel
- Carole Weinstein International Center
- Field Hockey Facility
- Jepson Alumni Center
- Millhiser Gymnasium
- Modlin Center for the Arts theater complex
- Queally Athletics Center
- Robins Center
- Robins School of Business
- Student Activity Center
- The Refectory
- Weinstein Hall
- Westhampton Center
- Westhampton Hall
- Whitehurst
"Those living and working on campus today are asked to conserve hot water as they are able until the Steam Plant comes fully back online," the university said in its email to the community. "The Heilman Dining Center, ETC, and FlavUR are open under regular operating hours. Tyler’s Grill will open at 11 a.m., and The Cellar will open at 5 p.m., per usual. All other retail locations are currently closed."
Updates are available here.
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