Unscheduled emergency power outages caused Bay State Road, South Campus and parts of Beacon Street to go dark on Saturday and Monday.
Boston University spokesman Colin Riley said the outages weren't scheduled by the university, but merely announced after the utilities company NSTAR informed it of its maintenance plan.
"This isn't BU interrupting the power, it's the utilities providing either electricity or gas to the university," Riley said. "When there are planned downtime, [utilities] work around our schedule. We have a very good relationship, they will reschedule around university schedules, but the two outages [on Bay State and in South Campus] were emergencies."
NSTAR could not be reached for comment at press time.
BU's Office of Residence Life sent out emails to residents advising them of the date and approximate time of the power outages.
Signs were also posted on door entrances a few days beforehand to let students know in advance.
Flashlights were available for students in need, according to the email.
Although students received notifications prior to the blackout, some were still inconvenienced.
Grace Von Maluski, a College of Arts and Sciences sophomore, said she and her friends were prepared with flashlights, but some had trouble getting into their brownstone.
"A lot of people had trouble swiping into them because of the power outage," she said.
School of Medicine graduate student Raagini Jawa, a resident assistant from the sixth floor of East Tower in The Towers, used the blackout as an excuse to bring the floor closer together.
"The girls were really excited because it was kind of mysterious, so we planned a floor event to celebrate," she said. "We watched a show about a serial killer that comes out during blackouts. We were ready with our chips and flashlights...it was definitely a bonding experience for my floor."
Other students attempted to go about their routine as normally as possible.
School of Education freshman Victoria Galarneau tried to work amid the chaos.
"I was writing a paper when the power went out and I couldn't charge my computer," she said. "I only had 30 minutes of battery left, so it was crunch time. It was also really distracting with people running around throwing beach balls. It was really dark in my room so I came into the common room to write my paper, but everyone was going crazy."
The commotion even woke up CAS sophomore Caroline Kimberly.
"I was sleeping, but everyone else was screaming," she said.
"It woke me up, but I went back to sleep because I had to get up early for crew."
Most Towers residents said the blackout lasted about an hour. In South, however, some students were not as lucky.
"[ORL] said it was going to be until 1:30 p.m. but it lasted longer than that," said College of Communication sophomore and South Campus resident Greg Picker.
Picker said the power outage in his brownstone was scheduled for Saturday at 1:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., but lasted until about 3:15 p.m.
Sarah Payne contributed to the reporting of this article.
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