A broken water main in a single building at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College had shut down the entire Clifton campus by Monday morning. In-person classes might not resume until next week.
The good news, provost Robbin Hoopes said, is that most students were learning online anyway.
“In a sense, COVID-19 helped us to deal with this water main break,” he said Wednesday afternoon.
According to Hoopes, staff discovered a broken water pipe in the basement of the college’s main building early Monday morning. The ensuing flood forced workers to shut off electricity for the entire campus.
About 75% of classes have been conducted online since the beginning of the pandemic, Hoopes said — only labs and hands-on training courses have required students to appear on campus in person, and most other face-to-face classes were easy to transition online.
“There’s some work to do” before the main building is usable again, Hoopes said. “But it’s doable.”
In the meantime, students returning to their in-person labs and lessons next week will have plenty of space to spread out. For once, classroom space isn’t at a premium.
Rachel Ashton, a student whose EMT class was disrupted by the break, said she’s already gotten used to the uncertainty of the new school year.
“I’m willing to just keep on going along and doing what needs to be done, and I know my professor is, too,” she said.
