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Courtfield Gardens, one of BU’s suite-style dormitories in London, lost power on March 4 as a result of a power surge from the power company, said Philippe Pavillard, director of site operations for BU Study Abroad. Though some students reported smelling smoke, Pavillard said he does not believe there was an electrical fire.
The building was evacuated, and the 64 BU student residents were told to report to Harrington Gardens, the study and administrative center for the London study abroad program, Pavillard said.
“The London team worked on finding alternatives for the night and pretty quickly housed all 64 students in the nearby Holiday Inn,” he wrote in an email. “Students were able to go back to Courtfield Garden and get some belongings.”
The team of BU staff members in London provided a stipend for students to buy meals, as they did not have access to their kitchens, and worked to reimburse them for any computer power cables that had been damaged in the power surge, Pavillard said.
Students returned to Courtfield Gardens on Saturday morning after the power company restored power to the building, Pavillard said, but not everything has been fixed. Appliances for the kitchens — there is one shared kitchen on each floor of the building — are in the process of being replaced, and as of Thursday, the building’s elevator was still out of service.
“We are very grateful that the residence was back in use relatively quickly and that everybody has settled back in,” he said. “This incident was disruptive, but I believe that all students were able to continue studying and participating in their internships without any interruption.”
Several students affected by the power outage said they appreciate BU’s efforts to make their accommodations as comfortable as possible. However, many added, communication lines between BU administrators and students could have been stronger, and a speedier appliance repair process would’ve made moving back in easier.
“BU handled it fairly well. Obviously, no one knew that was going to happen. They had all the students together, and I don’t think anyone didn’t know what was going on,” said Jason Gan, a junior in the School of Management. “They did what they could. I don’t think they handled it poorly at all.”
Erin Kingan, a junior in the College of Communication, said she lives on the fifth floor and the building’s broken elevator has kept many of the appliances from being repaired quickly.
“The only frustrating thing has been coming back. All the appliances have been getting installed or starting to work at different times. The lift is down, so they just can’t move some of them up … they’re like, ‘Yeah, you can move back in!’ but then we’re not able to actually use anything here.”
Morgan Bush, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said BU has given students food stipends — £20 for food while in the hotel and £15 to replace food lost in the power outage — and provided for free breakfast while in the hotel, but the money wasn’t enough for costs in London.
“We haven’t been issued any kind of formal apology, which I think is probably my biggest issue,” she said. “The people here have been like, ‘Sorry, you have to put up with this,’ but BU hasn’t sent us anything. It’s just been a hassle.”
Jon Goc, a junior in the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, said students were told via email on Thursday to leave their internships early and return to the hotel to check in for another night, which proved challenging for many students who commute to their internships.
“A lot of people have an hour, hour-and-a-half commute to work,” he said. “So I think while their hands were tied and I’m sure it wasn’t easy, they might have done a better job of giving you the option of, ‘If you can make it home now, we’d like you to come now,’ but if you can’t, there should be another time for people to check in.”
Danielle Cantey, a junior in COM, said her room’s bathroom light is broken, as well as the common floor’s bathroom light, and the fridges and ovens on her floor are just being replaced. However, she said, BU has done the best it can given the circumstances.
“They really couldn’t have done anything different,” she said. “They communicated pretty well. They were pretty quick with their emails and texts [to students]. They did reimburse us as much as they could … I’d give them a 7 out of 10.”
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