An Inauspicious Start to the Spring 2026 Semester

By all accounts, it was a tough start to the Spring 2026 semester.

The constant assault of arctic weather, compounded here on campus by power outages, loss of internet, and burst pipes requiring many student services offices to be relocated from Seay made us want to scream.

So, we did. Here at The Cyclone Chronicle, we vented our frustrations—that were probably shared by many—by writing a “rant.”

For those who are familiar with classic movies, we modeled our rant after the famous line from Network, the 1976 Academy-Award-Winning film about a frustrated TV news reporter:

“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

It all began with the weather. The cold weather. The ridiculous amounts of snow weather.

Snow Storm After Snow Storm

“I am so sick and tired of this weather, and I want to put the blame on the groundhog,” said Reece Smith. “I do not understand why we trust a rodent to choose if winter is going to be long or short every year. I think we should trust someone with a degree, like a meteorologist, even though they are almost always wrong, too.”

“Mother nature needs to get it together, and right now!” said Tyler Altman. “I’m tired of having to go out and shovel almost every other day. Then the bomb-cyclone dumped so much snow causing classes to go online, which I find beyond boring.”

For commuters, the incessant snow presented challenges.

“I used to absolutely adore winter, but these past couple of weeks have dropped the season to the bottom of my list,” said Carmella Vitel. “To even consider getting to campus, I have to deal with the ridiculous mountain of ice and snow at the end of my driveway left by the snowplow. Compound that with feeling like an Olympic skater trying to traverse places that haven’t been salted? I’m just done.”

Snow Affects Athletes

“We spent days shoveling our (baseball) field to make sure we were ready to play soon,” said Dominick Chiego, member of the Men’s Baseball Team. “Then the snow came in and ruined all of our hard work. I guess it kind of worked out as we then had a snow plow come in to clear the entire field.”

Power Out

Nothing proved more rant worthy (although the lack of to-go containers is right up there) than the cascading power outages from February 18-20.

Everything was normal on campus on Wednesday, Feb. 18, until around 10 a.m. when the power went out. Several students in the library started texting friends to find out that other buildings on campus were experiencing the same.

Then the campus emails started coming.

10:28 a.m.–Town-Wide Power Outage—Important Residential Updates from Jessica Rosano, director of residence life and community standards.

11:15 a.m.–Thank you for your patience during the power outage from Campus Security.

Power came back at around 12 noon that day, but subsequent emails described continued tech issues resulting in Wednesday’s online classes being cancelled, as well as Thursday’s online classes.

“Leaving Seay was horrific,” said Elizabeth May. “I was in a Literature of Film class on the second floor of Seay. Only a few minutes into class, the lights flickered and then went out. We all know Seay is one of the most confusing buildings to navigate, and because of this, I only know three ways out from the second floor. Two of which were not options. And with the first floor shut down, I couldn’t leave that way. Nor could I take the elevator because the power was out.”

“So, into the dark stairwells I plunged,” continued May. “By the time I reached the bottom floor, I was standing in pitch black. The journey out was illuminated by my dingy phone flashlight. The whole time I felt as though Tillie was looming right behind me.”

“If I’m honest, I didn’t think that Centenary could lose power,” said CJ Bowker. “My thought was that bigger buildings like Lackland or Seay had strong power systems (generators, anyone?). Clearly, I was wrong. My first thought was the Seay building; what must it look like? Think about it; most of the building has no natural light. I feel like campus would have been a good place to play ‘hide and seek,’ since Seay and Lackland have lots of places to hide.”

“I was terrified I wouldn’t be able to get back into my dorm because you need electricity to swipe in,” said Carlee Nigro. “I was so out of it the rest of the day and thought things would get back to normal. But nope; they didn’t. It was an utter disaster.”

And why are there no benches outside of the Lackland Center, one student queried?

“I’m a commuter and not a morning person and was running on very little sleep while waiting in the TV studio in Lackland when the lights went out,” said Carmella Vitel. “I thought I was going blind. Then the fire alarm went off, and the class evacuated to the front of the building. The campus announced they would move to remote functions only and by then, my ride was 30 minutes away. So, I had to wait, standing in the cold outside until then. Why are there no benches outside of Lackland? There should be.”

Oh No; No Starbucks!

“I was working at Starbucks when the lights went out,” said Nigro. “The boss said to close down, so we did. Then, I get back to my dorm and I’m told we have to open back up because the power was back on. I was beyond annoyed as we had already closed down the whole store, threw away the coffee, and packaged up the pastries.”

“Yeah, I’ve been a bit peeved lately with all that’s been happening,” said Joey Romano. “It’s been really, really inconvenient. Not only did I have to cancel my radio show, but I couldn’t get my strawberry acai Pink Drink from Starbucks; very tragic.”

A Gamer’s Nightmare

“After classes, I usually play games online with my friends back home,” said Dave Anisfee. “But since Wi-Fi was out, it was difficult to play properly, even with my phone’s hotspot.”

And no Moodle? Say it ain’t so!

What seemed to put everyone over the edge was the internet going down, which made Moodle inaccessible.

Around 2:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 18, IT sent out an email—Campus Internet Down—and it remained down until Friday, Feb. 20.

“We had plenty of light, and I knew these outages wouldn’t last all day. However, the biggest issue was the Wi-Fi,” said Alexis d’Ambly.

See Alexis's entire Editorial RANT right here:

“Although I personally had no real frustrations with the power outage, I couldn’t access my Moodle until the following Monday,” said Jeremy Moore. “I would have really liked access to get my work done over the weekend.”

“However, my main frustration is that I felt like there wasn’t really any communication, or very little” continued Moore.

“What started off as a brief annoyance turned into a ridiculous waiting game,” said Tanner Sullivan.

See Tanner’s entire Editorial RANT right here:

“The thing I hated more than the weather was the network and power outages,” said Tyler Altman. “For a frustrating amount of time, I couldn’t log into Moodle to submit and check on assignments and see general announcements for my classes.”

“It was a stressful couple of days,” said Dominick Chiego. “The school’s main education portal—Moodle—was shut down Wednesday through Sunday of that week not only not allowing students to do assignments, but also not being able to hand them in. Having three assignments due during those days with no Wi-Fi to get emails from my professors about what to do about it was very stressful.”

“Fortunately, my professors were understanding enough to give the class extensions of each to make sure we had plenty of time,” said Chiego.

Pipes burst in Seay; Offices moved indefinitely

Somewhere in the midst of all this—it's hard to keep track—pipes burst in the Seay Building, making many spaces inhabitable and offices relocated indefinitely.

Following is an alphabetical list of who is where:

Admissions Team – Back in their Seay offices

Alzate, Diana (FYL) – Harris & Betts Learning Center, Rm. 110

Boyd, Eunice (EOP) – Admissions Area, Seay

Greco, Kathleen (Dean of Student Success) – Admissions Area, Seay

Mullins, Kerry (Sr. VP Student Affairs & Admin) – Seay 1st floor

Pastor Tim – Library Lobby

Residence Life/Student IDs – Civic Engagement Center, Seay 008 (lower level)

Weingarten, Jamie (Director of Student Activities) – Harris & Betts Learning Center, Rm. 105

Vialva, Devon (Admissions) – Multicultural Center, Seay

“These locations are likely to extend through the end of the semester and into the summer,” said Kerry Mullins, senior VP of student affairs and administration.

“We are taking this opportunity to review our current space to ensure it is set up to maximize the staff support of the student life cycle.”

Silver Linings

Tucked inside all these rants were some positive sentiments.

The library offered old-fashioned books, games, coloring activities, and a space with lots of windows to let in the light, according to Rita Keene, library user experience manager.

“The power outage wasn’t fun, but it did motivate me to pivot and taught me a lot about being nifty,” said Nick Storms. “I was still able to capture the human side of sports, beyond the box score. So, the power outage didn’t keep me from completing my task about covering the Lady Cyclone’s basketball game. This setback, although testing my resilience and patience, didn’t stop me from pursuing what I love: being a sports journalist.”

“Despite all the annoyances, I can’t say I didn’t mind the Wi-Fi going out,” said Dominick Chiego. "Looking at it from a positive perspective, it gave me the chance to get off my phone and computer and spend a couple of days socializing with my friends.”

“We had to participate in assignments old-school without technology,” said Sami Swayze. “I found it nice, as it has been quite a while since we did anything without screens.”

See Sami’s entire Editorial RANT right here:

“It was nice to get out of the modern-day way of everything and just focus on getting back to human interaction,” continued Chiego. “With all the craziness going on, sometimes life gives you adversity to test your character. It’s not about what the adversity is, it’s how you respond to it that matters.”