By Matt Leppek

Wednesday, October 16^th, 2013. The day students lost control.

Darkness engulfs the Siena Heights Campus (SHU). Confusion spreads throughout the student body, and mass chaos erupts from the halls. Riots form. The Department of Public Safety (DPS) congregates in front of the welcome desk, attempting to put out the raging inferno that is SHU students.

For those who are confused, at approximately 10 p.m., a transformer blew, sending the campus into darkness. Lucas Hall, a freshman on the Lacrosse team, saw the transformer explode first-hand, “It looked like a big whitish-pink flash. I thought to my self, ‘Hell yeah, practice is over!’ and went back to my dorm.”

Rumors quickly infested the campus, including one that had many under the impression that someone was trapped in an elevator. A Twitter page was created, “@SHUblackout2013,” where students tweeted, “I hope all systems are messed up and they need a whole day of no classes to fix them,” “No class please God..” and “Okay everyone no one go to class tomorrow…let’s protest.”

Some people even went as far as blaming dorm room #409 for the power outage. I reside in 409, and even though I wasn’t there at the time, I have a strong feeling that not even #409 has the power to single-handedly cause a transformer to overload. So just where was I at the time?

I was in the game room with a couple friends shooting pool. The lights began to flicker, and the first thing that ran through my head was North Korea. But then I remembered they are still experimenting with bottle rockets, so it couldn’t be them. The lights went out completely, and blackness swept over us. I grabbed my phone for light, and made my way past the welcome desk.

The first place I went was the second floor, full of panicking girls, for obvious reasons. I wasn’t too worked up because this was the most exciting thing to happen at Siena since I’ve been here. Some people around me, on the other hand, were acting as if the lights were never coming back on… While the cameras were out I watched a lot of girls dumping their trash in the bathroom, but I was too lazy to go up to the fourth floor and do that myself. I felt DPS handled the situation adequately; Ben Koczab organized his workers very well.

I remember where I was at the night the lights went out. Now my only question is, do you?

Angel Noworyta does, in fact, and she will probably never forget. “I was shampooing my hair in the shower when the lights began to flicker, and the water started sputtering. I called for my roommate Sarah, but she didn’t respond. Luckily my suitemate heard me, and told me the power went out.” The worst part was Angel was hurrying in the shower to watch Duck Dynasty at 10, but since power was lost, she rushed for nothing. “It was a little traumatizing, I thought I was going to get stabbed, because this school’s haunted and all. At least it gave me and my roommate a chance to bond.”

Other students’ experiences were not as scarring. “I just thought we blew a circuit, then I looked outside and the whole campus was out,” says Josh Stankiewicz, a freshman cadet for DPS.  “What did I do while the cameras were out? I worked. And I feel, under the circumstances, we did quite well. Especially Ben. He was solid, Johnny-on-the-spot with everything.” Bryant White, a RA on the fourth floor, also thought a circuit blew in his room, until he walked out into the hallway. “I was sitting in my room watching Harry Potter when the power went out, then I went downstairs to see what was going on. Everyone was screaming, and I spent my night keeping people calm.” Some students definitely made the best of the situation.

“Please don’t go off, I need to paint this by Tuesday!” Olive Smith thought, as the lights went off and on. Her, Gianni Chesnick, and a few others were stranded in Studio Angelico when the lights went out. They decided to stick it out and continue painting, so they set up flashlights and carried on.

Hunter Bagley, a freshman on the football team recalls, “I was in the parking lot, and the first thing I did was run up to my room… for an old man mask to scare people. Eventually a Resident Assistant (RA) asked me to remove it…” Bagley feels DPS did a good job, but was annoyed when at first they asked him to step outside, and moments later was told to go to his room.

I found it amazing how obnoxious people could be. Phil Brier, a freshman on the football team, said, “The RA’s were high-strung, yes, but the real issue was that students were going absolutely batshit crazy for no good reason.”

I’m all for fun and games, but it gets a bit ridiculous when people are running around screaming at one in the morning. I was hoping the power would stay out all night, and eventually these hooligans would get bored and go to sleep. Unfortunately, it was restored at two in the morning, and I’m so glad someone went running through the halls, pounding on every door (including mine), or else I might have never known the power was back.

Ben Koczab, the head of DPS, was in his office working on payrolls when the power was lost. “I walked over to the welcome center and was happy to see how many workers responded,” he stated. He was also pleased with how the students acted, “I can understand a bit of hysteria.” Overall, they listened to his requests and had no issues with the students. On an ending note, he said, “I was quite impressed with the University as a whole, everyone displayed good communication.”