by Brooke Sanchez

Head Coach Pat Cunningham reached his 400th career win mark after two wins last weekend. The team defeated Hendrix 88-63 on Friday and then edged Colorado College 69-67 on Sunday in an overtime battle.

The Tigers (15-8 overall, 10-4 SCAC) are now tied for first place in the West Division.

“It was nice to get two wins this weekend,” Cunningham said. “We showed that we are improving as a team and playing better as the season has progressed.  It also keeps us tied for the West Division lead and puts us in a position to win this weekend and earn the number one seed for the West.”

In Friday’s dominating performance, Trinity shot 40 percent in the first half to give them a 34-28 halftime lead. With less than nine minutes left in the game, the Tigers went on a 20-0 run to secure the game.

“I thought it was a good win for us,” said sophomore post John Lavanway. “We weren’t playing too well in the first half, but broke out and played extremely well in the second half. We hit all our shots and got the stops when we needed them.”

Sophomore forward Zach Lambert, SCAC Player of the Week, led the team with 27 points in just 27 minutes for a new team season high. Sophomore Rob Kitzinger added 20 points, shooting 7-14 overall. Sophomore forward Jonathan Wilt grabbed six rebounds and senior guard Ryan Beall led with six assists and four steals.

Cunningham’s 400th win on Sunday was a fight, as Colorado College forced overtime with three successful free throws caused by a Tiger shooting foul.

“It was a real battle. We played well the first half and then really struggled to score in the second half,” Cunningham said. “Shots just would not fall.  Our guys showed a lot of determination to defend and compete in spite of our offensive struggles.  Again, it was a good team effort and good intensity for 45 minutes.”

Trinity led at halftime by 10 points but could never lead by that deficit again for the rest of the game. In overtime, the Tigers sank 3-4 free throws early on. Colorado College responded with two free throws and a jumper to take their first lead since their 2-0 leverage at the start of the game. After another Colorado College basket, junior forward Heath Hopson scored five points to put the Tigers ahead. Colorado College failed to catch up and the Tigers secured the victory.

“I thought we had a solid offensive performance. We have a lot of guys that can step up and contribute when we need it,” Lambert said. “We never gave up and played hard. Even when things didn’t go our way, we kept fighting and it resulted in a victory for us.”

Lambert led Trinity with 19 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals. Hopson scored 17 while Beall collected 13. Wilt accumulated six points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots and sophomore guard William Young posted up five points.

“I like the direction we’re heading in right now,” Lavanway said. “The last six games we’ve played really well. I think it gives us a  good chance going into this weekend and I think if we can get some wins this weekend we can go into the Conference Tournament determined and ready to get some wins at Birmingham.”

This weekend will conclude the regular season as the Tigers hit the road to face the University of Dallas at 8 p.m. on Friday and Austin College at 6 p.m. on Saturday. The winner of Saturday’s game will be the top seed at the SCAC Tournament in Birmingham, Ala.

by Chloe Pope-Levison

The women’s tennis team opened their season this past week with a successful 2-1 start, coming up with wins against Texas Lutheran University on Feb. 12 and St. Mary’s University on Feb. 14 and a close loss to Laredo Community College on Feb. 11.

On Saturday afternoon, the women’s tennis team lost 5-4 to Laredo. Trinity split the six singles matches but lost two of the three doubles matches.

“When we played Laredo, we knew they were going to be a tough team from top to bottom,” said assistant coach Jacob McMindes. “They’re very scrappy and very competitive. It’s a team that hates to lose. I thought our girls competed well, none of them gave up and they showed some real grit and character out there.”

In singles play, the Trinity winners included sophomore Stephanie Williamson at the No. 6 slot, sophomore Lavinia Bendandi at the No. 5 slot and junior Thavindra Ekanayake at the No. 4 slot.

Williamson and senior Melissa Ponder recorded the only doubles win for the Tigers that day.

“As a whole, with each match we get a little bit more confident and we get a little bit closer,” said first year Mackenzie Knoop. “Every single person on the team, whether they won or lost, gave their best.”

On Sunday afternoon, the Tigers beat Texas Lutheran in a 9-0 shutout.

“I thought they did a good job of going out there and taking care of business and doing what they needed to do to win,” McMindes said.

The Tigers dominated the singles competition. The winners included sophomore Kylie Hornbeck, sophomore Laura Roa, Ekanayake, Bendandi, Williamson and Ponder.

Trinity also won all the doubles matches. Ekanayake and Knoop won at the No. 1 position, while Hornbeck and senior Katie Griffith won at No. 2 and Williamson and senior Kassie Seger won at the No. 3 position.

“The first couple matches of the season are stepping stones for our main goal which is our conference matches,” Knoop said. “Every single match we gave them a run for their money and did a really good job working towards that goal.”

The Tigers continued their winning streak against Division-II St. Mary’s on Tuesday afternoon, winning 6-3. Trinity won four out of six of their singles matches and two out of three of their doubles matches.

“Everyone did their part, played well and even if they didn’t win, they fought hard,” Williamson said. “Overall it was a good day.”

In singles play, the winners were Knoop at the No. 1 position, Hornbeck at No. 3, Ekanayake at No. 4 and Bendandi at the No. 5 position.

Knoop and Ekanayake teamed up to win their doubles match in the No. 1 position, as did Hornbeck and Griffith at the No. 2 position.

“Our main goal is to win conference and if they keep plugging away, we have a really great shot at that,” McMindes said.

Trinity was scheduled to play University of the Incarnate Word on Sunday evening, but due to weather that game was postponed and will be played a

For all of those who haven’t heard of books and “reading” (like my roommate) or going off-campus and setting up camp at Starbucks, I offer you a reprieve for the next power outage! When your cords are of no use, the Lord isn’t answering your prayers, that hoard of food is dwindling and you’ve got no one to share words with, then I’ve got the sword that can pierce through your boredom: board games (and my sick rhymes)!

This ain’t yo daddy’s list of board games: this is yo daddy’s friend that is REALLY into board games. Like an unhealthy and scary amount. There’s no Monopoly or The Game of Life here, just really weird (but awesome) board games you’ve never heard of. Don’t expect me to tell you how to play these games. Some of these games have more words in the instruction “booklets” than some of the textbooks I’ve read for my classes.

Mord im Arosa

For this game, even if I printed out the instructions, it would provide no help. Only German majors out there would be able to understand it. The title literally translates to “Murder in Hotel.” I was skeptical at first when my friend told me about this game. I mean, the concept is just silly. The cover literally has a hotel with the sign, “Mord im Arosa,” in great big letters with each window displaying some sort of gruesome crime. Why does this hotel get business? Who in their right mind would patronize an establishment called “Murder in Hotel?” I applaud the management’s honesty, but it’s hard to imagine dozens of people clawing each other to book a room at this hotel. Germans must be even weirder than I thought. Oh. Wait. I didn’t actually talk about the game. You frame people for the various murders and throw little plastic people down a building. It’s a lot of fun.

Munchkin

This may be the nerdiest game on this list, but I really think the audience for this is larger than the usual basement dwellers like me. (Side note: my editor doesn’t want me to mention it but maybe he won’t notice this little side note. Everyone should go and play Settlers of Catan!) There’s a lot to enjoy in this game: fighting monsters, collecting loot and leveling up. Anyone sadistic, evil, conniving and just twisted will feel right at home in The World of Munchkin. The amount of sabotage a player can do to someone in the lead, or to that one guy no one likes, is amazing. Be prepared to curse and disown all of your family and friends in frustration as they all stab you in the back!

Editor’s note: I noticed. You’re fired.

Quelf

You control one of the various game pieces like Queen Spatula and Mrs. Pickle Feather and Batbileg Chinzorig, and move to the end of the game board before anyone else does. What sets this game apart are the, to put it mildly, unique activities the cards command you to do during your turn. “If a phone rings, all players must immediately stand up and say, ‘Pizza Party!’” “Every sentence you speak must end with the words: ‘Hear me, for I have spoken.’” “Put both of your wrists on your forehead and sing the words in this sentence, backwards, in a foreign accent.”

Just in case you had not heard, March is Contemporary Art Month. And to celebrate, San Antonio is bringing in a wide range of exhibits as a preview during the last few weeks of February. So if you decide you would like to celebrate, get some friends to go explore the city with you and try out these three exhibits.

The Blue Star Contemporary Arts Center (555 Funston)

The Blue Star Contemporary Arts Center is in cahoots with the San Antonio Botanical Garden and Texas Sculptors Group to bring to you, “Art In The Garden: Texas Uprising – Selections From The Texas Sculpture Group.” As one of my incredibly talented artist friends described it to me, “Think of giant twisted jungle gym pieces.” Brilliant! Now through March 1, you can walk through the San Antonio Botanical Gardens and view sculptures provided from a variety of different Texas sculptors. The exhibit is outside, so I recommend waiting until the weather is fine and taking some friends and snacks. If you haven’t been to the Botanical Gardens yet, they are located at 555 Funston in San Antonio. It is open to the public seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $7 for adults on a normal basis, but there are discounts for students, and when I say discounts, I mean free.

http://bluestarart.org/exhibits/view/90

The McNay (6000 N. New Braunfels)

The McNay has been bragging about their “Andy Warhol, Fame and Misfortune” exhibit for a while now, but I have come to learn that they had every right to boast. The gallery displays 150 objects in all media of Warhol’s, straight from the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. The exhibit opened on Feb. 1 and will last through May. 20. The McNay is altering its prices while the Warhol exhibit is housed there, and regular student admission is $12. Admission price includes entrance to Main Collection Galleries and to “Andy Warhol: Fame and Misfortune.” In addition, on H-E-B Thursday Nights (4 p.m. – 9 p.m.) and on AT&T First Sundays of the Month, entrance to Main Collection Galleries is FREE but the entrance to the Warhol section is $7.

http://www.mcnayart.org/index.php?option=com_igallery&view=igcategory&id=10&Itemid=271

Artpace (445 N. Main Avenue)

Artpace, a downtown contemporary art gallery, does something really unique on Fridays called “Taco Friday.” They invite the residents of San Antonio down to their facilities and serve Topo Chico and other chilled drinks and alongside their “Taco Truck-in-Residence,” which pulls up to the courtyard at noon and takes lunch orders until 2 p.m. After snacking, you are invited into the showrooms to experience their contemporary art exhibits. From now until April 29, in the Hudson Show Room, Artpace has the work of instillation artist, Tony Feher, on display. Feher is known for his use of common household objects in his installations; Feher’s art is built into the space, so you are literally walking through his work. Tacos + Art = Perfect Friday afternoon.

http://artpace.org/

by Pamela Torres

“The Robber Bridegroom” premieres at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 17, at the Stieren Theater. This musical tells a story that takes place in Mississippi in the 1776 through traditional bluegrass music.

“The play is a comic gothic imagining of early America as told through the humor and wisdom of Eudora Welty who is considered one of the great writers of southern literature with a classic bluegrass musical score,” said director Tim Hedgepeth.

It is an all-American play that captures the art of storytelling.

“This is not a musical about higher themes,” said Paige McGhee, who plays Rosamund. “It’s really homage to a culture, to a time, to a feeling and to the tradition of American storytelling. I think it encapsulates that really well. Especially the music; the music is the heart and soul of the show. You think of Hank Williams and old country music.”

This musical is based on a novella by Eudora Welty which tells the story of Jamie Lockhart, a robber, and Rosamund, an irresistible heiress. The musical adaptation was written by Alfred Uhry and first became successful as a play in 1974.

This version of the play was directed by Tim Hedgepeth, Trinity class of ’97, with Jim Worman as the musical director and Michelle Pietri as the choreographer. They, along with the actors, do an amazing job bringing the story to the stage.

“The Robber Bridegroom” is performed by a very gifted cast that captures the essence of the time period and the relationships between the characters. Rosamund is a daddy’s girl while Jamie Lockhart is the perfect example of a bad boy. The actors speak with a twang that brings the audience back to the South in the late 1700s and adds to hilarity of the performance; the musical is full of knee-slappers that keep the audience laughing throughout the entire play.

The orchestra, which consists of guitars, a banjo, violins and other instruments, makes sound effects that add to the comedy. The choice of musical style is unique and lends itself to the American tradition within “The Robber Bridegroom.”

“There are so many different musical styles in the US have traditions elsewhere, but this is purely rooted in American tradition,” Paige said.

The artists do a great job in bringing the audience in.

“The cast and our band all bring it every rehearsal and a lot of what the audience will see on stage is a result of their talents and creativity that they brought to the show themselves,” Hedgepeth said.

For many, this was a great opportunity to create a very unique performance.

“It’s been a major journey of sort of starting with something that a lot of us didn’t know anything about without getting some background information on and then sort of building our own version of it,” said James Jarrott, who plays Clemment Musgrove. “For me, it defied all my expectations of what the show was, I mean reading it is one thing but then to actually put it on its feet was amazing because this story came to life and the comedy in it. It’s definitely a musical comedy but you don’t really gather that from the reading. It’s really a show you have to see.”

“The Robber Bridegroom” will run through Feb. 25, 2012.

by Lauren Wilks

Every February, in honor of Black History month, students involved with Trinity’s Black Student Union organize Mocha Life, a performance showcase celebrating African-American culture. This year, the program was entitled Mocha Life 2012: Soul Train Edition, and was chronologically organized to sync up with the iconic television show by the same name. The event moved through trends of the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. BSU decided on the theme back in the fall, after creating a committee within BSU to work on Mocha Life specifically.

“As a committee we were really interested in doing a variety of decades and after a bit of research I found that the show Soul Train aired through all the decades we were interested in placing in the show. Hence, the theme.  However, it was completely ironic that the creator of Soul Train passed away a week before Mocha Life,” said co-producer and co-host of Mocha Life, senior Morgan Latin.

The show featured song, dance, spoken word and gospel performances from not only Trinity students, but also from University of Texas at San Antonio students and, even more broadly, from members of the San Antonio community. Members of BSU’s Mocha Life planning committee reached out to members of the UTSA and San Antonio communities a few months prior to the show in order to integrate all of the aspects of African American culture over the past few decades that the committee wanted to highlight.

“The format of Mocha Life has been fairly consistent for years, a variety of Trinity acts and acts from the community in the areas of music, dance, film, drama or literature, progressed on by the hosts,” Latin said.

The goal with many programs that are put on annually by students on campus is to improve upon past years’ performances, and sophomore and co-producer of Mocha Life Arriel Upshaw felt that the planning committee accomplished this goal. One of the aspects of this year’s Mocha Life production that was unique to the Soul Train Edition was the incorporation of the famous Soul Train line that was featured in the television show.

“Overall I loved planning Mocha Life because I always had the idea of what we could do to make it bigger and better than the previous Mocha Life. I definitely believe we accomplished just that,” Upshaw said. “My favorite aspect about the execution of the show is how the audience interacted with the hosts and participated in intermission.

I was so excited to see over 40 people get on stage just to participate in the Soul Train Line. It was amazing,” Upshaw said.

Intermission’s Soul Train line was representative of the spirit of the entire production. It was celebratory and marked by merriment all the way through, complete with fashion shows with clothes from each decade accompanied by popular music of the time, student-sung covers of Boyz II Men and original hip-hop songs, and dance numbers as widely variant as a Christian praise dance and a performance from  the Trinity hip-hop crew, Loon-E Crew.

“It was fantastic [to be part of Mocha Life]. Being able to revisit songs from the past to choreograph the dance for Loon-E Crew and bring back memories to the crowd was so much fun,” said choreographer for Loon-E Crew Peter Dancy.

As Latin reflects on her time at Trinity, she believes that being involved with Mocha Life and BSU will be one of the aspects of university life she misses most.

“I have been on the Mocha Life Committee since my first year at Trinity and this is my fourth year working on Mocha Life.  It has been awesome to see the show evolve with the hard work and leadership of different producers and stage managers.  It’s never an easy task, but it’s been a lot of fun,” Latin said.  “As a senior, Mocha Life will definitely be one of the things I miss taking part in.”

We hope your Valentine’s Day was everything you wanted it to be, and we’re here to give you a perspective of how ours was.

Sometimes it’s pretty easy to consider heterosexual relationships the norm and forget about any relationships different from those. But as many of you know, same-sex couples and most couples involving one or two transgender partners are not recognized federally or at the state level in Texas.

In San Antonio, the Direct Action Network of San Antonio (DANSA) organized for same-sex couples to attend the annual free wedding ceremonies held on Valentine’s Day at midnight. One of us (John Dean) is a Lead Organizer for DANSA, and held a press conference with fellow Lead Organizer Julie Pousson Monday morning to describe their action.

“We’re not here this evening asking for rights that we don’t have; we’re going to be asking for the observation of rights that we all have,” said Julie Pousson, a Lead Organizer for the Direct Action Network of San Antonio “The 14th Amendment does not say ‘unless you’re gay.’”

The group of organizers, seven same-sex couples and around 37 supporters proceeded to the courthouse before midnight to attend the wedding hosted by Rev. Dr. Joe Sullivan, who is also a professor of psychology at San Antonio College.

At the beginning of the ceremony, Sullivan gave a speech about homosexuality being condemned by God, and how the same-sex couples were “disgusting” by attending.

“Our beautiful couples stood their ground for more than five minutes of hate speech and contradictory logic from the good minister before he finally relented and performed the wedding,” wrote Pousson in a Facebook post that has since gone viral in the San Antonio LGBT community.

Before the midnight ceremonies, comments on a WOAI article online threatened DANSA action participants with citizen’s arrest, a threat that darkened the mood for many of the lead organizers.

“It is against God’s laws and against man’s laws as well. We intend to capture any criminals we espy and hold them for the police,” wrote the anonymous commenter.

In Austin, GetEQUAL TX activists, accompanied by around 40 supporters, applied for marriage licenses at the Travis County Clerk’s office. When they were denied, they filed out one by one, except for one couple: Tiffani Bishop and Iana Di Bona. You might remember them from the article by Meghan Harrington in the Feb. issue of the Trinitonian. These two women, along with their witness Brittney Tovar, sat down in the office in front of the marriage license counter and started singing a variation of “Sit at the Welcome Table,” a song from the Civil Rights era.

Eventually, the two were arrested and escorted out of the office by Travis County Constables and later released on recognisance. GetEQUAL TX State Lead Michael Diviesti attended the action saw that the County Clerk herself was in tears for not being able to give the couples their licenses. At a certain point, Michael realized, “not only are we doing this now, we are going to have to do it again and again.”

We don’t mean to be downers with this article, lovely Trinity community. We write it less to depress you, and more to remind you that while you were in a coffee house with that special someone or enjoying the day for yourself with Friends re-runs and froyo, there were people being arrested for requesting full equality under the law so that, one day, everyone can have a truly Happy Valentine’s Day.

Nothing about the blackout was particularly dire. Students’ lives weren’t endangered but merely inconvenienced. Actually, the fact that morning classes were cancelled was probably cause for celebration for most of the student body. This won’t go down in history as Trinity’s great calamity of 2012, but the way in which the university handled the situation does raise some questions.

One of the earliest notifications of the power outage was through Trinity’s official Twitter at 8:39 a.m. and then a Facebook post at 8:45 a.m. (both maintained by University Communications). Some students received emails from resident mentors or professors saying that classes were cancelled. Soon after, at 9:05 a.m., an email relayed a message from the Crisis Management Team that morning classes were cancelled and to stay tuned for more information, which was followed by several other emails updating campus on the power situation throughout the day. The final email stated that power would not be restored to lower campus until 4 a.m. on Tuesday.

Although Facebook, Twitter and email are fast ways to reach students, information from social media sites and disparate outlets is viewed as less reliable than, say, one central source established for the purpose of relaying information to the entire community during a crisis. Aka TrinAlert.

In that final email from Crisis Management, students were informed that, although TrinAlert is intended only for “catastrophic situations,” it would be used for updates on campus power. That email was sent at 4 p.m., several hours into the situation. Why wasn’t TrinAlert used in the morning when students, faculty and staff would have benefitted from getting information directly from the university? Isn’t the whole point of TrinAlert to quickly communicate important information to students during an event without electricity? A blackout seems like an obvious time to use the system, so it’s good that CMT is reevaluating their protocol for TrinAlert (see “Burned-out transformer” on page 6).

The choice to communicate through email and social media also reveals the assumption that most students have access to the Internet without electricity. Although students could go to the library and check their email, the majority of students were on their way to class or still in bed at 8:39 a.m. when the first Tweet was sent. The way in which the university reached students during the blackout was based on a culture of instant communication facilitated by smart phones. Constant connection to the Internet seems to be the direction in which the future of communication is heading, which could make text messaging services like Trinalert irrelevant.

It seems like many Trinity students had little trouble communicating online despite the blackout. The popular TriniMemes Facebook page was flooded with posts about the blackout. This goes to show that even without electricity, we are not powerless. Enjoy the power, Trinity.

by Avantika Krishna

Mark Detterick will be leaving his position as vice president for Finance and Administration at Trinity University at the end of April. Serving as a key member of the president’s executive staff since April 2010, Detterick will be leaving to serve as the associate vice president for Financial Planning and Budget at the University of Richmond in Virginia. Detterick will finish out his term at Trinity and move to Virginia to start his new job on May 1.

A family man, Detterick and his wife decided that leaving Trinity would be the best decision in the interests of his family and his three young children.

“It’s the classic situation of someone who is outstanding at his day job but has very strong family values, and it was unfortunate for us but fortunate for his family that he is putting [them] first,” Ahlburg said.

In the past two years, Detterick led the university’s strategic financial management and oversaw the three main resources of the university: human capital, financial capital and the university’s physical plan.

Detterick reformed the finance department by involving the faculty in the budget process, made finances transparent and readily available and cut some unnecessary bureaucracy that made finances more complicated.

“He has revolutionized our finance department, been able to uncover pots of money and took a hard look at the high costs of healthcare, given a free holiday to the faculty, and brought together capital expenditures and put it into the same cycle so this way we know what we have when we decide to spend money,” Ahlburg said.

During his time here, Detterick looked at facilities services, differentiating between campus planning and day-to-day operations. His office was also able to separate the primary financial roles between accounting, finance investing and budgeting and began to develop a facilities master plan, which helps determine which direction the university will be going.

Detterick acknowledges that many of his achievements would not have been possible without his staff.

“I inherited a really good team here from Craig McCoy, who was the previous vice president. My mantra is pretty simple: You get the right people, you give them the resources they need and you get out of the way,” Detterick said.

Diane Graves, the university librarian, stressed that Detterick was a valuable asset to the university and will be missed.

“It’s been clear that he’s been really dedicated in his work here. We’re sorry to see him go, but I know some people at University of Richmond, and they are really glad to get him. I don’t blame him for his decision but it’s sad to lose someone who is really good and has done really good things for this institution,” Graves said.

In his new position, Detterick will lead a team focused on budgeting. His biggest takeaway from his time at Trinity that he plans to use at the University of Richmond was realizing that culture is the key to success.

“It’s very important to understand the culture of where you are going and that regardless of the organization and resources it comes down to the people. That’s what made this decision so difficult – we have been embraced by the Trinity community, and it’s an incredible place,” Detterick said.

Ahlburg had nothing but praise for Detterick’s accomplishments and hard work during his short tenure at Trinity.

“I would argue that Mark has achieved more in his short time here than some people achieve in 10 years and largely that’s because he’s put 10 years of working time into two years. He’s a terrific guy and will be greatly missed,” Ahlburg said.

Detterick said he and his wife will greatly miss Trinity and everyone here.

“The number one thing about Trinity is the people. The students, faculty and staff are incredible, and it’s all been a really positive experience. Thank you to Trinity, and we look forward to keeping in touch. It’s a really exciting time for Trinity. There’s a lot going on, there’s a lot of momentum, and we’re sad we’re going to be missing that.” Detterick said.

The university will be starting a national search for his replacement soon.

A national search also continues for a new vice president of University Advancement and Communications, a post that was left vacant at the beginning of the fall semester after the abrupt departure of former vice president Tracy Christeson.

The initial outage affected all of campus, but contractors were able to restore electricity to upper campus by 11:30 a.m. on Monday. Because upper campus was without power all morning, officials were forced to cancel all classes that met before 12:30 p.m.

The delay between the initial power outage and the first email sent to students about the situation and cancelled classes caused some confusion.

From the administrative side of the communication breakdown, things were hectic as the Crisis Management Team, a team comprised of faculty and staff members, collaborated to assess the damage done to the generator and decide on the best course of action for the university.

Hal Lovejoy, director of Environmental Health and Safety and emergency management coordinator for the CMT, was the first Trinity official at the site of the burned-out transformer. Lovejoy was driving to work between 6:45 a.m. and 7 a.m. when he heard via a Trinity University Police Department radio that there were reports of a smoking transformer on Hildebrand Avenue.

After confirming that the transformer was smoking, Lovejoy was in charge of notifying the fire department and CPS Energy as well as Facility Services on Trinity’s campus. Once these groups were notified and on the scene, they were able to open the transformer and assess what exactly was broken and gauge the severity of the outage.

From here, Lovejoy began notifying other members of the CMT. At about 8 a.m. he made contact with Mark Detterick, vice president for Finance and Administration, and another member of CMT and advised them that it would take until noon to restore power to upper campus.

Detterick and other members of the CMT began discussing plans of action concerning students and classes. A little under an hour later they had their decision and were trying to communicate it to Sharon Jones Schweitzer, assistant vice president of University Communications and the CMT member in charge of conveying accurate information to students.

“I was en route to campus, and I was still driving and monitoring my smart phone to see what was going on, and I dropped my daughter off at 8:30  a.m. — between 8:30 a.m. and 8:35 a.m. — to her school, and I waited in the parking lot to see if there was a final decision, and they said hold off. As I was making my way back from the Leed campus to McCullough, I got the message to go with that. So then I pulled into another parking lot, I’m trying to type out the message on my iPhone, which was a challenge, but I finally hit send and was able to send the message to faculty, staff and students that classes had been cancelled until 12:30 p.m.,” Schweitzer said.

Students received the cancellation message at 9:05 a.m. and Schweitzer believes that the message reached students as quickly as possible.

“There was a lot going on. Decisions have to be made, things have to be talked through, so we got the word out as quickly as we could,” Schweitzer said.

Despite the fact that power was restored to upper campus by 11:30, the power outage on lower campus lasted much longer, stretching through the afternoon and evening and into the next morning. This outage was especially tedious because, when electrical lines were constructed and buried underneath Trinity’s campus in the 1960s, engineers found that it was more practical to link Coates University Center to Calvert residence hall electrically. That placed both campus dining centers on the same electrical grid—the same grid that would be without power into the night.

David Tuttle, dean of students and the CMT member in charge of overseeing coordinated logistical responses and support for students, collaborated with Aramark Dining Services to provide food options for students.

“Once it became apparent that this was going to go into the afternoon, initially was the thought, Aramark had their staff there. They had students wanting to eat, and so they felt like they had a responsibility to open up and provide the food that they could provide given that they didn’t have power. There was no way to charge people for the food, and they didn’t feel like they should anyway without a full menu available,” Tuttle said.

Mabee functioned on a limited schedule throughout the day on Monday, a fact not related to lack of servable food.

“I think the issue for them, as much as anything, was lighting, especially during the evening time,” Tuttle said.

In the event of a longer power outage, Aramark has a long-term crisis meal plan in place. However, Tuttle notes an event big enough to require the long-term crisis meal plan would probably cause the university to shut down.

All of Aramark’s refrigerators are connected to generators, so the power outage will not require them to dispose of any spoiled food.

In addition to securing a meal plan for students, Tuttle was also in charge of overseeing the residence halls.

“I spoke to the Res Life staff at 5 p.m. and told them, the student staff, that there was an expectation that they would be in their buildings and available unless they had pressing academic issues or made other arrangements with their coordinator because I wanted to make sure the buildings were covered. [Trinity University Police Department] brought on extra staff to be in the buildings,” Tuttle said.

The increased watchfulness of the Residential Life staff and TUPD officers inspired Tuttle to visit the residence halls in the early morning hours on Tuesday as well.

“I just felt like if other people are being asked to be out there and be vigilant, then I should do the same thing. Anybody can go out there at 9 or 10 p.m., but I wanted to go out there later when the power was off later than we thought it would be,” Tuttle said.

Tuttle’s appearance coincided with the appearance of different sort of Trinity official: the dog Jurgens.

“So I planned to go out there at 1 a.m., and I thought that I might as well bring Jurgens with me to have company … I just thought it would be fun to start tweeting our progress in case anybody wanted to come out and see us,” Tuttle said. “Nobody seemed to care about seeing me, but they were happy to see Jurgens.”

While Tuttle, Jurgens, TUPD and Residential Life worked to keep the residential halls safe, Lovejoy and Facility Services were working hard to restore power to campus.

The delay in restoration stemmed from a missing part that had to be flown from Dallas to San Antonio. Initially, Lovejoy and others anticipated that the part would arrive by 7 p.m. allowing for an installation window of four hours, they predicted the power would be back by 11 p.m. However, the airline that was initially flying the part decided they could not take the part, and it was placed on a later flight with a different airline. This switch delayed the part’s arrival to 11 p.m. When the part finally arrived near midnight on Monday, slight installation delays pushed the restoration back further. At 5 a.m. Tuesday, all power on campus was restored.

These delays caused administrators to send multiple updates to students, many of which were sent through the campus alert system, TrinAlert. However, the decision to use TrinAlert was not made until Monday afternoon, calling the system’s purpose into question.

As explained by Lovejoy, Schweitzer and Tuttle, TrinAlert’s primary purpose is to keep students updated on catastrophes that pose an immediate threat to life and safety. Such catastrophes include a gunman on campus or severe storms and tornados.

Because TrinAlert was useful in this situation, the CMT is re-evaluating the protocols surrounding it.

“We were pretty much following our protocols, and TrinAlert wasn’t used for the initial notifications. Nobody thought, at the time, ‘Well, the power’s out. Who’s going to be able to check their email or the website?’ That certainly has been and is being discussed at the Crisis Management Team. There is certainly nothing wrong with having used TrinAlert, it was just — we were following our protocols,” Lovejoy said.

Overall, university administrators and staff members feel like communication went as smoothly as the situation allowed.

“Sure, in hindsight, you can always do things differently, I suppose. It would have been good to get the message out sooner rather than later, but I think we were going as fast as we could, and we wanted to make sure we had the right information, the accurate information,” Schweitzer said.