Author
Blake Wood
Publish Date

The following email was sent to UIS students, faculty and staff on July 28, 2021.

Dear Campus Community,

A planned power outage is scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 1 beginning about 7:30 a.m. The outage is anticipated to last about six hours and will affect a large portion of the campus.

The outage is necessary in order for City, Water, Light, & Power (CWLP) to install new primary electrical feeds to the campus, replacing older lines, in order to ensure a more dependable electrical supply. Some campus roads will be closed and power will be shut off to the entire campus, except the townhouses, apartments and Cox Children’s Center.  Some buildings or spaces with generators, such as HSB, will have power during the outage to support critical areas, but not necessarily all areas.

The primary feeds enter the campus from the north and terminate at Brookens Library.

Map of electrical grid at UIS

CWLP will dispatch two full crews in an effort to keep the length of the power outage to a minimum. Facilities & Services crews, including Steam & Power Plant Engineers, Electricians, and Building Service Workers, will be on site for the duration of the work to prepare for and oversee all activities. They will also confirm building systems are back online and functioning properly after the power is restored.

The F&S main point of contact for this project is

John Grice, Construction Superintendent
Office: 217-206-6704
Cell: 217-202-6773
jwgrice@uis.edu

Additional information to note for the power outage:

Emergency contact the UIS Police Department: 206-7777

Building related questions contact Facilities & Services: 206-6530 (facilities@uis.edu)

IT questions contact Information Technology Services: 206-6000 (techsupport@uis.edu)

Computers, phones, remote access, internet, etc. guidance by building:

  • HSB and Campus Police Department buildings will have power and be fully operational
  • BRK, PAC, UHB, Student Union and WUIS – IP phones and Wi-Fi will have power and be operational. Office computers in these building will not have power so remote desktop access will not be available.
  • All other buildings and spaces –
    • there will be no functioning phones, internet, or office computers (which would include no remote desktop access)
    • services such as e-mail, learning systems, and websites should be unaffected

Emergency reporting/response, campus security, building access guidance:

The Campus Police Department building will have power and be fully operational.

  • Police operations will proceed as usual.
    • Emergencies – 206-7777
    • Non Emergencies – 206-6690
  • Officers will monitor buildings without power for emergency events.
  • Employees and students should refrain from accessing campus academic buildings during the power outage. For all other departments/buildings (such as Student Union and TRAC), please check the websites for summer/current operating hours.

Your patience and understanding are appreciated as we work with CWLP to maintain our electrical infrastructure.

Please feel free to share this information as needed.

Thank you,

Facilities and Services
Business Services Building (BSB) 33
Phone: (217) 206-6530
Website: www.uis.edu/facilitiesandservices