Two motor vehicle accidents 20 days apart caused widespread outages on the Ammerman campus in September, disrupting classes and prompting criticism about the timing of the administration’s messaging.
The first outage occurred at 8:44 a.m. on Sept. 4, when a delivery truck struck a utility pole at the intersection of Hettys Path and South Coleman Road on the west side of Nicolls Road, Suffolk police said. While no injuries were reported, the accident cut power to “large sections” of the campus, according to an email from Ammerman Executive Dean Irene Rios.
A second accident, on Sept. 24 at 6:50 p.m., caused outages across the campus again, this time after a pickup truck struck a utility pole on Nicolls Road and Horseblock Place. Students, staff and faculty received an email at 7:23 p.m. informing them that all evening classes and activities on the Ammerman campus were suspended for the remainder of the day.
At 9:25 p.m., an update was issued that power was restored and regular operations would resume on Thursday.
Criticism about the administration’s response
Students reported receiving conflicting and untimely messages via email and text alerts during the outage on Sept. 4. At 9:48 a.m. a notification from Rios’s office indicated that campus would not open until noon, and classes were suspended until further notice. But a second message at 10:43 a.m. said classes would resume at 11 a.m., leaving many students confused and scrambling. Some students simply decided to go home.
CJ Pabisz, an 18-year-old general English major who had heard conflicting stories that morning, said he went home, only to return to campus an hour later.
“I wouldn’t have gone home if I knew classes were starting sooner,” Pabisz said.
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Rios explained that PSEG Long Island restored the outage sooner than anticipated. She emphasized that the administration’s “goal is to not interrupt classes at all if possible.”
Christina Craig, a 20-year-old student who was in her 9:30 a.m. math class when the outage occurred on Sept. 4, said waiting for updates as PSEG restored service felt like “a waste of time.”
Some others on campus were concerned for their safety due to lack of communication during the Sept. 24 incident.
English professor William Burns, who was in the Islip Arts Building at the time, said he tried calling Public Safety twice and received no answer.
“There was no one to assist or even to inform the people in Islip Arts on what to do or what was going on,” he said of the half-hour delay in communication. I felt it put the students in possible jeopardy.”
Rios said the college must deploy Public Safety crews to different parts of the campus, “especially when there is a power outage—because we need to direct traffic coming onto the campus. A power outage is a very serious situation from our perspective, and all of them are, but we want to make sure no one is stuck in an elevator.”
Rios: ‘We try to be as accurate as possible at that moment’
Rios said the administration has an emergency team and a procedure they follow to communicate “as immediately as possible.”
“Usually, our Public Safety officers are the first to know of a problem, and we rely on them to tell our director of plant operations, their executive dean, and the president’s office what occurred,” Rios said. “Then, a college brief is sent out stating whether it’s a long-term delay, a closing or a postponement. We try to be as accurate as possible at that moment.”
She added that the school is always reviewing feedback after something occurs.
“The safety of our students, faculty and staff has always been in the forefront,” Rios said. “We just want to get it right. That’s very important to us.”
