A water main break at the Interprofessional Health Sciences campus on Jan. 21 caused water damage to the west side of the building, which resulted in canceled classes the following two days.
“PSE&G had a power interruption to the campus, which caused the building owner’s boilers to shut down,” John Signorello, Associate Vice President of Facilities Engineering and Business Affairs, said in an email. Due to the very low wind chills that day, some of the pipes froze and started to leak once the power and heat was restored to the building.
Classes were not in session on that Monday due to the MLK holiday.
Announcements about the water damage and canceled classes were posted on the SHU’s website and social media accounts late Monday night.
According to multiple students that have classes on the Nutley campus, some of them did not see these posts and arrived at the campus on Jan. 22 only to learn that classes were canceled. Others communicated with fellow students to notify each other.
Katherine Brown, a sophomore nursing major, said she started getting ready for her 9 a.m. class on Tuesday when she received a text from a friend with a screenshot of the website’s post that classes were canceled.
“I was happy to get a couple more hours of sleep before starting my professors’ online assignments,” Brown said in an email.
Brown said she was surprised that students did not receive an email about canceled classes until almost 10 a.m. Tuesday morning.
A post published on SHU’s website on Jan. 22 at 6 p.m., said students, administrators, faculty, and staff from the three schools on the Nutley campus “should look to emails from their respective dean, department chair and/or program director for the latest updates regarding classes, events and work schedules.”
Classes were eventually canceled on Jan. 23 too.
Multiple students said that since Wednesday, they were e-mailed updates on the schedule for re-assigned classrooms and what parts of the building were available for use.
The I.H.S campus re-opened on Jan. 24.
A post on shu.edu from Jan. 25 reassured that the building was safe, bathrooms were working, and the chapel, café, and student lounges were open. Although, certain classrooms, faculty offices, the I.H.S library, and other areas of the building are being repaired by work crews “for the foreseeable future.”
Signorello said, “Steady progress is being made,” and confirmed that all classes are in session. He also said that to prevent a similar occurrence from happening again, heaters that run off an emergency generator are currently being installed.
Sarah Yenesel can be reached at sarah.yenesel@student.shu.edu.
