March 22, 2007

College well prepared for emergencies
Will Kauff
kauffw@marietta.edu

Blackout, Transformer, lying around with power while the freshmen froze, or whatever you called it Day is one that I’ll definitely remember when I think about Marietta.  I’ve learned a lot here, and one of the biggest things is that just because of something like a flood or in this case a 2 day blackout that life does go on, and the college does it’s best job to help it move along. 

As a student of Marietta College I am very pleased with how well the college handled the blackout, ok I would have been even more pleased if they would have sent us all home a few days early, but lets be realistic.  The fact that Residence Life, Student Activities and Greek Life, and Dining Services stepped up to help students out really proves that Marietta can feel just like home. 

I know that within the first few hours of the outage most of the Resident Life Staff in my building  had made contact with almost all of the residents, and assured them that they’d be safe and to head to bed.  When they woke up the following morning and were asked to patrol the buildings in response to the fact that the doors were either completely open or completely closed and there were no fire alarms in most buildings they all jumped to that task without much complaint.  I overheard people asking many different questions to the RA’s whether it was about when the power and heat would be back or if they were having class, most RA’s responded in a polite truthful manner. 

I’m not sure if the person who is reading this have ever been to the first floor of Russell Hall, incase you haven’t let me tell you it gets very very cold on that floor even when the heat is on.  You can imagine what it felt like after almost two days with no heat, and in response to this and the temperature level in other buildings the Office of Student Activities and Greek life opened the Gathering Place, which did have power and heat.  If nothing else it was a warm place to go sit, however it also provided a place to do some homework, charge you cell phone, or just watch television. 

The final area of the campus that I feel stood up for the students during this time was Dining Services, which worked hard in the cold and sometimes dark to provide food to students during the blackout.  I personally only ate one meal on campus during the break, but the fact that they were providing it to people was great!  I know that had I not had the money to eat off campus I would have gone to Gilman and enjoyed the fact that food was being provided, even if it wasn’t the warmest thing I’d ever eaten. 

The basic point of this was to really say thanks to everyone at Marietta who took the time to help out during the blackout, whether it was Melissa Liptak and Lynne Miller who sat the Gathering Place, the Resident Assistants who diligently and delighted (I’m sure) walked their dorms checking for safety issues, or the staff of Chartwells dining service who came into work and prepared food.