Power Outage in Lemmons Center

Reported by: Ashleigh Scheuneman

Photographed by: Imogene Eagan

Lemmons Center at George Fox University (GFU) experienced a week-long power outage due to the snow and ice storms that hit at the end of February, cancelling some classes usually held in the building.

Dr. Courtney Anderegg, a professor who has worked at GFU for four years, said, “I teach Introduction to Public Relations in Lemmons Center. We had to go fully online for three class periods. It didn’t really affect the integrity of my class because it was in a hybrid modality to begin with.”

In this way, a readiness for switching classes online has been beneficial for both students and professors alike in executing their classes.

Bergen Lilleskare, English and computer science major at GFU, has MATH 260 with Professor Pete Rusaw in Lemmons Center.

“We had to do class online one time. Since we had a test a few days later, we had to do the test in a different room other than our regular Lemmons Center classroom. I don’t think the change affected the class that much,” said Lilleskare. “It made getting to the room for the test a little stressful, though, because I originally didn’t know where the room was.”

Besides classes, Dr. Anderegg had to work from home during the power outage because her office was located in Lemmons Center.

For interior design major Abigail Strong, who has a majority of her classes in Lemmons Center, the power outage was a time of Zoom classes and confusion.

“All of my classes ended up being moved online, so the professors had to adapt lesson plans and whatnot,” said Strong. “As far as when the power was supposed to be back on, it was all guesswork. Neither the teachers nor the students knew.”

Strong said that professors would estimate when power would come back on, but that nobody really knew for sure.

Lilleskare does not think that the power outage in Lemmons Center affected the integrity of his class because the Zoom session covered the same material and the test was given in person.

“We only had two class sessions affected,” said Lilleskare. “These classes are from 9:25 to 10:40. We did one class over Zoom. I prefer in-person classes.”

Dr. Anderegg said that overall, the power outage did not have a lasting effect on how she teaches her Introduction to Public Relations class.

The effect of the power outage in Lemmons Center was lessened by the professors' preparedness for moving classes online, however it was still a cause for extra stress for students and professors.