Rutgers power outage closes 90 buildings, forces 3,000 students out of residences

NEW BRUNSWICK — Intermittent power outages are continuing on the Rutgers' Cook/Douglass campus and have led to the closure of some facilities, cancellation of evening classes and displacement of nearly 3,000 students from residence halls.

About 90 buildings, including 39 residence halls, have been affected by the outages since Tuesday, according to a statement from Antonio M. Calcado, Rutgers executive vice president for strategic planning and operations,

PSE&G spokeswoman Karen Johnson said the problem has nothing to do with the utility. "Those outages are within the college's internal network. We bring the power to the college, the college is responsible for distributing that power within its buildings. There's some kind of equipment issue within the college campus itself that is causing the outages."

"We're consulting with them and helping to troubleshoot," Johnson said

Rutgers spokesman E.J. Miranda said the outages are not related to any cyber attack.

"Arrangements have been made to provide temporary housing as well as transportation for the approximately 3,000 residential students who live on those campuses," Calcado added. "The Division of Student Affairs and Residential Life are communicating directly with the affected students to advise them on next steps."

The Daily Targum student newspaper reported that Dan Morrison, executive director of residence life, described the situation as a "fire-safety issue" and that until the problem is fixed, "we cannot allow anyone to occupy the apartments and residence halls on Cook and Douglass after dark."

Morrison said the Werblin Recreation Center, the Livingston Recreation Center and the Rutgers Athletic Center would all be used as shelters if needed.

Evening classes held at Cook/Douglass are canceled. All student centers, health centers, recreational centers and dining halls on Cook/Douglass are closed until further notice.

Buildings on all other campuses are open and operating on a normal schedule.

The Cook/Douglass Campus stretches between Route 1 and Route 18 and includes agricultural facilities, the Law Center and the University Inn and Conference Center.

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