This past week, Fairfield experienced several rather unusual events, causing the student body to take to the internet to voice their shock and frustrations over the events of the past week.
The first instance of nature interfering with regularly scheduled campus activities was when Wednesday’s violent rain and wind storm caused a campus-wide power outage. A Stag Alert was sent on Wednesday at 5:38 p.m. describing that the campus-wide power outage was due to a “traffic accident on North Benson Road” stating that “crews are working to restore power as soon as possible.”
The power had been out for about 20 minutes on campus and in town by the time this alert was sent, and students had already been finding their homework and meal plans interrupted by the sudden outage. What soon became more of an issue for the student body was the note that “this can affect networks and systems.” After about two hours out, another Stag Alert was sent, as power had been restored at 7:12 p.m.
There was no further note about the continuing network issues until the next day, on Thursday night. The 8:47 p.m. Stag Alert read that “ITS is working to restore periodic ongoing network issues affecting both wired and wireless connections across the North Benson Road Campus due to the power outage we experienced yesterday.” The message alerted students to the fact that there may be “intermittent connectivity or complete outages” throughout campus.
Students, however, were already well aware of the fact that Wi-Fi was down, and were not very happy with the interruption to daily and academic life. Taking to the app Fizz, students were quick with gripes about the restoration of power, yet lack of stable, or any, internet connection.
One anonymous post read “This school better pay for my hotspot” while another joked that “This Wi-Fi is as stable as my income.” Noting the interruption to schoolwork, which usually takes place only with internet access, a post questioned “How am I supposed to be an academic weapon with no WiFi,” with another more candidly stating “No wifi either. I’m gonna cry. 2 tests tomorrow.”
Junior Christina Silvestri echoes the same sentiments, stating, “the Wi-Fi outage prevented me from completing a few of my assignments. In my townhouse, we were without Wi-Fi from the time the power went out through the next morning.” Students were unhappy with the day-long period of no Wi-Fi, hoping to begin Friday as a normal day of classes before the weekend.
However, another weather-related interruption was soon to follow, as students woke up Friday morning to an unusual event in Connecticut – an earthquake of 4.8 magnitude. Another Stag Alert shortly after the event at 11:23 a.m. read that “In the past hour, Connecticut campuses may have felt movement due to a 4.8 earthquake that took place in New Jersey. Campus Facilities reports no damage to buildings and there are no reports of injury. Classes and activities will continue as normal.”
Students, many of whom are from the Northeast and are not used to earthquakes, once again took to Fizz to express their shock through jokes. One anonymous post wrote “Dear Professor, due to the traumatic earthquake I will not be attending class today due to the emotional distress it caused me.”
Many students wrote anonymous posts expressing the shock of the past few days’ events, one stating that “Fairfield gets a fire, a downpour, heavy winds and an earthquake. What’s next? A tornado?” while another wrote “what is going onnnnn first the crazy weather, power loss, no internet, and now an earthquake. What’s next?”
Another member of the Class of 2025, Grace Lombardi, commented in real time on experiencing the earthquake in class, stating “In the moment, we had no idea what was happening. Nobody expects an earthquake here.”
Students felt the effects of a rather strange week and certainly had their fair share of genuine jokes, but also some frustrations and shocks over it. No matter what happens on this campus, whether it be about the student body, or major world events, it seems students have found a forum in Fizz where they can express themselves. Even joking about the app itself, one student posted, “Fizz is faster than the national news” after seeing the way students flocked to it in the wake of the outage and earthquake.
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