By Kelly Lewis & Jake Zabski
Students were encouraged to leave campus and head home on Wednesday, October 27 after classes had been canceled for the remainder of the week due to a Nor’easter that swept through Massachusetts causing heavy rainfall and high winds that led to a campus-wide power outage.
Caroline Abate, a senior and Resident Assistant in Bogan Hall, was awoken from the storm early Wednesday morning.
“The wind was crazy, it woke me up at 4 a.m. and I couldn’t go back to sleep,” Abate said.
Less than two hours later, the campus completely lost power besides the Holy Cross Center. Between 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday and 7:30 a.m. on Friday, most of campus was out of power except for select residential and academic buildings that were running via generators.
Students woke up Wednesday morning to several Hill Alerts and emails announcing that classes would be canceled for the day; later that night they would be further cancelled until Monday, November 1.
“We plan to resume classes in-person on Monday, November 1,” Father Denning said via email.
Due to the cancelation of classes, some students chose to leave campus while others stayed. With no internet or power, some students wondered how they would be able to get their course work done.
Alexandra Waterhouse, a sophomore, chose to stay on campus and tried to make the best out of the situation.
“The blackout hasn’t been easy, but I feel like I have been able to make some good out of this situation. I mean, yes, we don’t have classes, but it has allowed me to spend more time with my roommate. Yesterday we spent the whole day driving around Easton, Bridgewater, Stoughton, and the other neighboring areas, getting supplies, laughing, and jamming out to music,” Waterhouse said.
Waterhouse was concerned with not having power or Wi-Fi to complete assignments and course work, but said that her professors were very accommodating during the blackout.
Nick Fantasia, a senior and a Resident Assistant in O’Hara Hall also tried to make the best out of the situation.
“Those of us who stayed in O’Hara had a fun time at our RD’s program with pizza and games. We did our best to make the most of the bad weather and make it fun,” Fantasia said.
Senior Abby Guilfoyle also stayed on campus over the outage and didn’t let the power being out stop her and her roommate Molly Cannon from having fun.
While most individual rooms in Bogan Hall did not have power, the common areas in the building had internet and power, which they both took advantage of.
“We honestly didn’t know how long it would take to get power back but we weren’t worried. We ended up using the kitchen on the 4th floor of New Hall to make muffins and cookies each night. It was really cool seeing the common areas full of people playing games or making food,” Guilfoyle said.
Guilfoyle remarked that her time at school over the outage reminded her of her older sister’s college stories where students often made the best of any situation and came together to support one another in harder times.
By Thursday, half of the campus had power again. The only place on campus that had not been affected by the storm and power outage was the Holy Cross Center, also known as “the Sem.”
Kaitlyn Simmons, a senior and Resident Assistant at the Holy Cross Center said she has experienced power outages in all three previous residential halls while at Stonehill. She said living in the Sem has its perks.
“Though we have a much longer walk to the main campus than most, we are lucky enough to, majority of the time, to have power because we’re on a different power grid,” Simmons said. “This time with the power out, it’s been nice to have my friends over to work on group projects, and let them be able to have access to Wi-Fi and electricity and heat!”
Chloe Landry, a senior, was one of the many students who chose to go home during the outage. Landry calls Berlin, Massachusetts her home and was joined by senior Jake Zabski who is from Connecticut and wasn’t able to make the drive home at short notice on Wednesday.
“It was very crazy at the start trying to figure out where I’d stay and how I’d get work done, especially during the middle of the semester. However it also was a fun adventure,” Landry said.
Landry and Zabski turned their days off into a much needed break by spending time doing work together, driving up to Mount Wachusett, and enjoying the fall foliage in Central Massachusetts.
On Friday October 29th, Jill Goddard, the Director of Communications and Media Relations, sent an email stating that power had been restored to campus and students were welcome to come back, even though classes remained canceled for the day.
Some students chose to come back to campus, while others stayed home. Whether students stayed or not, it’s safe to say that most students enjoyed having an extra few days off to celebrate Halloween and have a much needed break after midterms.