The student senate of North Dakota State typically meets on Sunday nights inside the ballroom of Memorial Union. This Sunday, however, the organization relocated to inside of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity house due to a power outage causing MU to shut down at 5:30 p.m.

Brent DeKrey, the associate director of maintenance and repairs for facilities management, said that Xcel Energy had a bad cable underground that broke, temporarily causing a large chunk of campus to lose power.

DeKrey added in the event students or student groups incur a power outage they should call the University Police and Safety Office. He said that individuals can call facilities management as well, though in non-business hours it would be better to call the UPSO. DeKrey said both groups would call Xcel Energy to come out and fix the problem.

Derek Hatzenbuhler, a student senator from the college of arts, humanities and social sciences, said that the meeting “didn’t really change things too much.” He added that although chairs were exchanged for couches and a projector screen was exchanged for a television, the group still reviewed agenda items in real time and still wore formal attire.

Anuj Teotia, student body vice president, originally tried to relocate the senate meeting to the Library or Loftsgard Hall through permission from the UPSO, though was unable to as all buildings were affected by the power outage. Teotia then arranged for student senate to move from MU to ATO as he has connections to the fraternity.

“Senate was cancelled on Monday, Jan. 16 because we wouldn’t have met quorum. So, it was essential for student senate to meet on Sunday, Jan. 22 to vote on legislation before budgeting,” Teotia said.