The city and UNM community have been seeing orange for more than a year now, and for the most part, people have adjusted to life under construction.
We avoid the Big-I like the plague and just plan on spending more time in the car. We change campus traffic patterns and understand that sometimes jackhammers are noises you have to deal with.
However, patience only goes so far.
It is one thing to expect us to adjust to University plans when we are informed well in advance. It is another thing altogether to change the plans without properly informing everyone who could be affected by those changes.
The Aug. 4 planned power outage to finish a utility upgrade was poorly handled, despite the University’s assertions that the project ran smoothly. Everyone was told that power would go out from 4 a.m. Saturday until 4 a.m. Sunday, but that was not the case.
We can accept when power doesn’t come on right away on a Sunday. People understand that sometimes a job may run long and most back-up generators can handle a reasonable extension of a power outage.
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However, shutting down the power early without warning is inexcusable. Some areas were shut down as early as 4 p.m. Friday afternoon. Faculty members in the Engineering Department saw research go down the drain when power was unexpectedly shut down in their area at 7 p.m. Friday night.
People shouldn’t mutter “typical UNM” when they angrily leave work. It shouldn’t be a surprise that some faculty and staff members are so dedicated that they don’t leave the office at 5 p.m. on a Friday night.
The Daily Lobo reported that the outage would run from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. because that’s what we were told. The bottom line is that the schedule changed and not everyone got the message.
We will have to continue dealing with construction delays and interruptions of our daily schedule, but a little respect and accurate communication goes a long way toward making UNM a more pleasant place to work and study.
Iliana Lim¢n,
Editor in chief
