A power outage is usually nothing more than a minor inconvenience, but when you live upwards of 20 miles away it becomes a major problem when notifications are slow to come out.
With the exception of residence halls, all of Texas A&M University-Commerce’s buildings lost power early Tuesday morning, but I was not notified until 10:30 a.m. For students who live on campus this is not a big deal, but for commuters like myself, waiting to issue a statement is a huge issue. I appreciate the fact that alerts went out, and it is great that a system like this is set up. Unfortunately, the system did not help me, just as I am sure it didn’t help other students who travel to get to class. Had the alert been issued when the power problems first started occurring, then my time and gas would not have suffered.
At 12:10 p.m. another alert was issued saying power had been restored and classes resumed as normal at 12:30 p.m.
Once again I am grateful for this system, but what if students decided to go home when the first alert was issued. The initial message said buildings might be open by noon, so for two hours students had to wander the streets of Commerce hoping for resolution, or choose to head home. For those who decided to leave the campus who had a class at 12:30 p.m., a notification at 12:10 p.m. is not nearly enough time to make it back to class. That sort of time gap causes students to rush and can have serious repercussions such as accidents.
Fixing this problem is easy.
First, if there is going to be an issue which will prevent class for an indefinite period of time, then just cancel classes for the day, or until much later in the evening. Although this is inconvenient for class time and professors, it helps the students immensely and the students should be the primary focus.
Aside from canceling classes, a more detailed message could be sent out which informs students of whether or not classes will resume. The current message makes it seem like there is a 50/50 shot of whether or not there will be class.
I understand that unforeseen circumstances happen, but there is no reason these issues can’t be handled better. The alert system we have in place is a good one, it just needs to be activated earlier and give more information. Currently it leaves students confused and wandering in the heat.