Faculty and students cleared off their desks and reinstalled Zoom as the Cosumnes River College campus closed due to a power outage, according to a Los Rios alert, on Tuesday. Though the initial alert said the closure would only last for the day, an update eight hours later said the campus will remain closed through Saturday, with classes and support services moving online.
Public Information Officer Kristie West said the outage was caused by recent repairs to electrical equipment installed Jan. 12 that began causing problems on Tuesday.
Within 30 minutes of losing power, it was determined that campus would need to close on Tuesday, West said.
“We initially thought, ‘Well, maybe it’ll just be a few minutes, so we’ll get the engineers over there and investigate,’” West said. “But then as soon as they got there, they’re like, ‘No, this is a much bigger problem than we thought.’”
West said there have been power outages in the past, but none this drastic. She said outages are usually caused by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District and are resolved quickly. With the current repairs, she said Los Rios engineers estimate it will take a couple of days to fix the problem.
Brian Rickel, dean of Arts, Media and Entertainment, said that while hands-on learning is difficult to execute online, the remote space offers an opportunity for professors to focus on lectures. Rickel reassured students given their past experiences with distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Take a breath. We’ll be fine. We’ve done this before,” Rickel said.
Support service faculty are also adjusting to the remote status, with library assistance and tutoring services continuing their operations online.
“We have librarians available to answer student questions and provide them with help on finding resources for their assignments via our chats and email,” said library department chair Emily Bond.
Bond said there is a limited supply of Chromebooks available to students through faculty referrals or by contacting the library directly. She said that students can also access software from home using the virtual computer lab.
Tutoring Services Coordinator Ryana Fisher said online tutoring is available via Peji, a drop-in tutoring platform. Instructions on how to access Penji are listed on the Tutoring Center webpage.
“I appreciate all the staff who’ve been doing their best,” Fisher said. “They’re ready and they’re available. We just don’t have the students.”
West said additional alerts will be sent with updates and encouraged students to stay in contact with their professors for further instructions.
“A lot of people thrive in an in-person environment and I understand that, but it is also just for a week,” West said. “I am hopeful it won’t have a big impact.”