The South Campus lights are flickering.
According to Jim Mayne, associate director of Facility and Utility Operations, the University’s South Campus is experiencing power problems at least once a month.
“Once a month is way too much,” Mayne said. “That number should be much lower. It might have something to do with the casino expansion that is going on.”
But employees at the Louisiana Business and Technology Center said the number of power outages is quickly increasing. Last week alone saw three outages at LSU’s South Campus.
Regional Customer Service Manager Sheila Pounders confirmed the outages but said they are not anything to worry about.
“We experienced three outages last week,” Pounders said. “One outage was caused by an out-of-control car. The second outage was caused by a lightning strike. And the third was because of some maintenance we were performing.”
Pounders added that the outages were short-lived, “lasting less than two minutes.”
Tammy Millican, communication and grants manager for the Office of Facility Services, also said the outages caused minimal harm to employees.
“While this power outage was an inconvenience to students, faculty and staff, they were not in any personal danger,” Millican said. “Upgrades and improvements to the distribution system will alleviate this problem.”
Though the power outages aren’t dangerous, they could cause other problems.
“People aren’t in any real danger,” Mayne added. “But if the power goes out, someone could lose any work they are doing on a computer, if it isn’t saved.”
Charles D’Agostino, executive
director of the LBTC, agreed that employees could lose unsaved documents, but said the outages are not a great enough concern to be worried about.
“I haven’t seen any of these outages,” D’Agostino said. “Most outages are probably weather-related. We have not ever lost any important data.”
 
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Contact Joshua Bergeron at [email protected]