UO Campus Planning and Facilities Management is preparing for an upcoming utility maintenance and testing project which will entail short, staggered power outages in most buildings on the UO campus during spring break.
The project will take place on the mornings of Monday, March 23, and Tuesday, March 24.
The university does not expect major disruptions to its wired or wireless network on campus or its core information technology services such as email, Canvas, DuckWeb, Banner or Office 365 during this project.
The UO’s data centers will have backup power sources and should stay online during the outages, so no loss of network connectivity between the university and the outside world is expected. Some buildings or parts of buildings potentially could experience temporary loss of wired and wireless networks if some of the network does not come back online as planned.
Information Services will be actively monitoring the network for outages on both days, and engineers will take immediate action if equipment is not powering back on properly. People who are unable to connect to the network can report the outage through the UO Service Portal or call the Technology Service Desk at 541-346-HELP.
The start of this project overlaps with the end of the grading for winter term, with grades due no later than noon on the first day of the project. Faculty members working remotely likely won’t see any interference to the applications they need to submit grades.
Those who prefer to post grades from campus should be aware of the outage schedule and that spot outages may occur in the network.
Traditional landline phones on campus will stay up during the outages. Some Voice over Internet Protocol phones will go offline while their buildings are powered down. All emergency and elevator phones on campus will remain functional throughout the project.
Audiovisual equipment in UO classrooms will lose power during the outages and may not automatically come back online. Information Services does not have a real-time monitoring system for AV equipment, but it will be manually checking equipment after the power project is completed and before the start of spring term.
People can report AV equipment issues through the UO Service Portal or call the Tech Desk at 541-346-HELP.
REMINDER: This critical maintenance project calls for staggered, 15-minute outages that will affect one feeder, and the buildings it powers, at a time on the morning of Monday, March 23. On Tuesday, March 24, all power to campus will be shut off for under 5 minutes.
Check online for a complete schedule and list of buildings affected both days.
Anyone with concerns about impacts to equipment or daily operations from the outages is asked to complete an online continuity survey.