ETHAN ROGACION (HE/HIM
Students at Te Herenga Waka’s Kelburn campus have been left in uncertainty today, as power cuts continue to disrupt services at the top of the hill.
Just before noon on Wednesday, lights went out across Kelburn which, according to a University spokesperson, was the result of a “cable fault”. The University has not provided comment on what caused the outage, but has told Salient that it “is working with Wellington Electricity to fix the fault, which may take until the weekend.”
Wellington Electricity has recently been undertaking works on the Mount St path, next to the Student Union building, which involves the laying of a new cable that seeks to “increase the reliability of our electricity network and offer increased capacity for future power needs.”
Immediately after power was lost to the campus, students and faculty were left in the dark, with one student telling Salient that they were only evacuated from the Library at 4pm, hours after the initial outage. Campus security staff reportedly circulated the library, telling her “something along the lines of “we have to evacuate the building due to the power outage’.”
Loss of power at Kelburn has had impacts on planned classes and event, including to Āwhina’s Rā Mākete and to VUWSA’s Candidates Debate. On social media, the University has confirmed that the Library, the Hub, Maclaurin and Cotton have now reopened on generator power, but has advised students to expect intermittent power and Wi-Fi availability throughout the rest of the week.
Te Herenga Waka has confirmed that Old Kirk and Kirk are expected to reopen tomorrow morning, while Maru and Student Union will remain closed for teaching and learning Saturday. The Recreation Centre is closed “until further notice”.
The University told Salient that, in order to conserve power in affected buildings and prioritise learning and teaching, “we have advised staff who are based in certain buildings to work from a different location.”
“Mauri Ora—Student Health and Counselling on the Kelburn campus remains open in the Student Union Building with limited capacity. All other student support services for continue to run as normal.”
The University did not provide comment when Salient asked why it took so long for it to respond, and whether it is adequately prepared for any potential future disruptions.
Keep an eye on the University’s official social media channels for ongoing updates about the power disruption.