 "Photo: Stephen Blackman/The Daily Northwestern")
For more than an hour Tuesday night, students lost reading light for midterms and political junkies were deprived of election results when parts of campus lost power, Internet and cable service.
At about 6:30 p.m., a light pole caught fire on Emerson Street and Dewey Avenue, the Evanston Police Department said. Police speculated the fire was caused by a transformer.
Norris University Center, University Library and Annenberg Hall lost power, as did other locations around Evanston.
Rich Dillon, Norris' operation manager and a second-year SESP graduate student, said he was in class in Annenberg when the lights went out about 6:30 p.m. He called the Norris manager, who reported everything was OK, he said.
To prevent problems until power returned, the staff was told to clear the people out of dark spaces, check the bathrooms and make sure everyone in Norris was all right, Dillon said. The staff also closed the game rooms and ARTica Studios.
"I was surprised how well the student staff responded," Dillon said. "They were really on top of their game."
Once the power went out, everyone in Norris was relocated if they were in dark areas, including the ground floor. A large group went upstairs, and a lot of people left when the power initially went out, "probably because food was shut down," said Katie Belleville, a dual-degree Weinberg and Music sophomore who works at Norris' information desk.
Others went to Norris when they lost power at home but were surprised and frustrated to find the building also had lost power.
Ben Melsky, a Music senior, lost power at his house on Sherman Avenue and Simpson Street about 7 p.m. After lighting candles and eating dinner, he said he decided to go to Norris because he wanted to do homework and watch the election coverage on television.
Other students faced a larger problem: There was no place to study for upcoming midterms.
Weinberg senior David Ellis and McCormick junior Jens Notstad said they trudged through sleet from Allison Hall to the library but were not allowed in. After settling in the Starbucks in Norris, the students were asked to leave by Norris staff.
"It's hard when you want to be productive," Notstad said. "We wandered around in the dark, literally and figuratively."
They finally relocated to the second floor. "It's a little noisier, and there's more foot traffic than a normal study environment," Ellis said.
Other students in the library had less luck.
SESP sophomore Tasha Richardson was on the phone with her cousin when the lights went out in Core Collection.
Groups of students trickled out during the first 20 minutes of the power shortage, said Richardson, who works at Core.
But a handful of students powered on.
"I was still trying to read with my cell phone," Richardson said, while holding a copy of the book, "The Quiet Room."
Alish Kocz, a third-year graduate student, was one of a few students working in the Reference section of the library, poring over his books under a single pane of fluorescent light.
"I'm preparing a research project due (Wednesday)," he said. "I don't know what I'm going to do."
When the Internet and power went out, he started hand-writing his notes for his project, due Wednesday at 2 p.m.
"If they weren't closing, I would have written all of them out," he said. "I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it."
Reach Emily Glazer at emilyglazer2007@u.northwestern.edu
Reach Deepa Seetharaman at d-seetharaman@northwestern.edu
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