Residents of Dugmore Hall were left without power late at night on Oct. 18. 

“When I went to go up stairs in the elevator I hit four for the fourth floor and everything started flickering,” Dugmore resident Joey Knight said. “I hit call on the other one, and then as it’s coming down, the whole power blinks and then stopped.”

According to Academic Custodial Services Manager, Timothy Pollock, several other buildings across campus also experienced power outages including Lind, Bouillon, Shaw, Barge, McConnell and more. In total, 14 different buildings were affected by the outage initially, including both dorm and academic halls.

According to Pollock, the electricians on scene reported that the issue was caused by a rodent. 

“Rodents can get access to switches or different components within the power distribution network,” Pollock said. ”When they get in there, they can create a condition or a short in the system, they can trigger a power outage.”

Pollock said that this issue is something they’ve dealt with before.

“Occasionally, it’s happened here before historically going back several years,” said Pollock

Pollock said the outage at Dugmore Hall lasted around six hours from 9:40 p.m. to 3:32 a.m., while other buildings like Lind Hall and Bouillon Hall didn’t have power restored to them until around 6:20 a.m.

Repair teams worked overnight to get the situation resolved. 

“I was on site around 9:45 p.m. on the 18th and the power outage was fully resolved around 11 a.m. the next day,” Pollock said. “Some of us stay on site, you know 13-14 hours to respond.” 

Students reported experiencing other problems and technical issues after the outage, such as issues with printers and having no hot water.

Pollock said the teams tried to get all these issues resolved as quickly as possible. 

“I couldn’t believe that they resolved this in such a quick manner, but more importantly, it was absolute protocol for safety,” said Pollock. “We were looking at a 7:30 a.m. finish and potentially going to push a late start there and they beat that time by about an hour.”

All issues regarding the power shortages have been resolved and everything is operational as normal.

To stay updated on campus power outages and other information, follow the CWU Twitter account at @CentralWashU.