Senior facilities worker Nate Hocking places lights in the Hart bathrooms in anticipation of the scheduled September 3, 2011 Stewart/Hart power outage. | Ashley Jones/THE CHIMES

There will be a power outage affecting only Stewart Hall and Hart Hall from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. due to the installation of an electrical power system to the parking structure on Saturday, Sept. 3. The rest of campus will be up and running.

The two residence halls are connected to a switch gear that the parking structure will be intersecting with, resulting in the 10-hour power loss, explained Jody Spicer, project manager for construction under Facilities Planning.

“The buildings on campus are all split up into different switch gears because of the high voltage, so when you turn off one section, it affects certain buildings and in this case, it affects Stewart and Hart,” Spicer said.

To accommodate the lack of lighting in hallways, stairwells and bathrooms, facilities services will be providing flashlights and other lighting amenities. Jenny Ezaki, a resident assistant in Hart, said that she became aware of the power outage a couple days ago and will be ready to follow procedures throughout the dorm. Although the power outage will be during daytime hours and over by night, a generator will be on hand.

Once the power system is tied in, electricians will be able to start bringing in lights to the fully-powered parking structure. Although the parking structure will not cause any other shutdowns after Saturday afternoon, other construction projects may affect different parts of campus in the future.

“Unfortunately with the construction and the many projects we have on campus, we have to go through this because we have to tie in all these new buildings into the existing system and in order to do that it puts a little bit of pressure on whoever is involved,” Spicer said.