October 21, 2020

When the Lights Went Out

A future story is brewing about what happened during some of Beloit’s aptly timed power outages. 

Button reading Survived the Blackout! from the October 1983 power outage in Blaisdell, Bushnell, and Peet. Maybe you were at Beloit the time a squirrel brought the campus lights down after it tripped over a transformer during finals week. Or maybe you remember that other time, when a snake slithered into the buried electrical equipment and pulled the plug on the power.

Campus power outages have occurred only a handful of times, and they’ve usually felt more like a gift than an inconvenience, a break in the routine or a reason for students to throw the mother of all parties.

We’re planning a future magazine story about what happened during some of these outages. If you were there, you can help us. Send a quick email to belmag@beloit.edu to share your story or photos or both.

Thanks go to recently retired College Archivist Fred Burwell’86, who started us off with a photo of his very own commemorative blackout pin from 1983.

Middle College at dusk. Credit: Alex Garcia


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