Michigan State moves to online classes, remote work through Monday after plant failure

Michigan State University is moving classes online and shifting employees to remote work through Monday night after a failure at the power plant that serves its East Lansing campus left parts of campus without steam and hot water.

The change took effect at 9 a.m. Sunday and runs through 11 p.m. Monday. It applies only to the East Lansing campus.

The university said the shift is meant to ease demand on its systems while crews work to restore service. Events and activities across campus are being handled case by case, and employees with questions about their job responsibilities were told to contact their supervisor.

For students living in residence halls, the university said it is adapting dining operations to keep service running through the disruption.

The outage began with a failure at the T.B. Simon Power Plant, which produces both electricity and steam for campus. The university has not said what time power went out or what specifically failed at the plant. Once the plant came back online, power was restored to buildings and campus facilities in stages.

By 2:52 a.m. Sunday, power was back to the majority of campus, the university said, with crews continuing to bring the remaining buildings fully online.

While the outage was ongoing, university staff were stationed at residence halls to help students who couldn't get into buildings, and students were told to use main entrances. Cellular service was affected across all carriers on campus. The university said it was working with providers, including Verizon Wireless, which delivered mobile units to campus to improve service.

Patrol officers with the university's Department of Police and Public Safety were out across campus, and light towers were placed at intersections, with drivers told to use caution.

Campus police also warned that the university's Green Light emergency phones may not be working, and told anyone on campus to call or text 911 in an emergency.