After a week of closure due to unforeseen electricity issues, the Perry-Castañeda Library has reopened.
In an email to the UT community on Nov. 2, Campus Operations and Planning announced the library would be closed until Nov. 3, as “campus teams are continuing repairs and electrical testing to determine when service can safely resume.”
The next day, another email was sent saying the PCL would remain closed through Nov. 4. The library remained closed until today at noon, when Campus Operations and Planning announced power was restored this morning. The University did not respond to requests for comment after the building reopened.
At the same time, hot water service at Rowling Hall, a nearby graduate business building, was impacted, according to the Nov. 2 email. The cause of the electricity issue is unclear, and although lights remained on in some areas of the PCL, the outage affected critical building systems, according to the emails.
The UTC building, connected to the PCL, was not affected by the outage.
Maya Prakash, a junior psychology major, said she felt that the closure was disruptive to students. Prakash said she did not feel that the University response was enough.
“Obviously there are other spots to study on campus,” Prakash said. “But I feel like the PCL in particular being closed is really disruptive because a lot of the other libraries on campus close at like six or seven o’clock in the evening. They’re not open 24/7 the way that the PCL is.”
