Western University’s biology department is grappling with the impacts of a power outage that affected four buildings on campus. University of Western Ontario Faculty Association President Kim Verwaayen said that the facilities have experienced several outages since last year, affecting conditions for living organisms, enzymes, and other research materials. “For some research, you can’t just turn everything back on when the power returns,” Verwaayen explained. “What is lost during a prolonged outage can mean months of work and months of progress gone.” Western researchers also fear that the frequent outages could jeopardize tens of millions in annual research funding. Students, faculty, and staff are urging Western to improve communication during outages and to modernize the campus electrical system.
