Part of Pitt-Johnstown and Richland Township experienced a power outage Oct. 15. For Pitt-Johnstown, the outage took place around 9:30 a.m..

Although students, staff and faculty know that the power went out, when a Penelec spokeswoman was asked about the outage, she said they had no record of it.

According to the Penelec spokeswoman, the last time Pitt-Johnstown experienced a power outage was last February.

When Campus Physical Plant Coordinator Jacqueline Ivock was asked about the power outage, she reported that she had been told to reply that Physical Plant officials had no comment on the outage.

Police Chief Eric Zangaglia said that there was an incident report of the outage, but no details were given in the report other than the majority of campus buildings had lost power.

“I know that Physical Plant talked to Penelec about the outage,” Zangaglia said.

Humanities Division Chair Patty Derrick received a phone call from the Academic Affairs Vice President Janet Grady telling her to let faculty members know classes would be canceled until 4 p.m..

“I don’t think any faculty members left,” Derrick said.

A few minutes later the lights went back on and Derrick received another phone call to inform faculty members to disregard the canceling of classes.

Humanities Division Secretary Linda Coyle said she was working in the back office when the power went out.

She said that it was completely black except for a few generator lights in the hall.

“Since we are an office that doesn’t have windows, we lit candles,” Coyle said.

Coyle had also gone to tell some of the faculty that classes would be canceled until 4 p.m., and, in the process, some students had heard the news and left.

Some confusion resulted because students told other students that classes were canceled. Even some professors were calling in to see if there were classes because students had told them classes were canceled, Coyle said.

“If they (students) didn’t show up to class, it wasn’t entirely their fault,” Coyle said.

Sophomore Nick Napora was in class when the power went out. He was sitting in a class when the lights and projector went out at approximately 9:30 a.m., Napora said.

“At first I was frightened. I mean, I was taking quality notes from the professor’s PowerPoint, when suddenly the information vanished,” Napora said.

His professor continued the lecture in the dark since she had brought a printed version of the PowerPoint, Napora said.