BATON ROUGE — Southern University’s Board of Supervisors met Friday to address ongoing campus power outages, outlining a timeline toward a permanent fix.

During a planned outage last weekend, crews installed a temporary switchgear that successfully restored electrical flow. The temporary unit will remain in place until permanent replacement equipment—which is currently on order—arrives in about 10 months.

To fund emergency repairs, the university reallocated $1.5 million in Act 751 deferred maintenance funds. The capital will cover engineering and replacement designs for failed transformers and switches.

Southern University has also launched a comprehensive 14-week campuswide electrical study. The assessment will include field verification, equipment nameplate capture, infrared thermography testing and more. 

"This study isn't just a surface-level inspection," a university official said. "Technicians are actively taking readings and testing every component."

Representatives from Entergy Louisiana also attended the meeting to discuss the progress made so far.

"We're here with you through this process," said Seth Schilling, manager of regional customer service at Entergy. "We want to be a strong community and utility partner for you."

University officials also expressed gratitude to contractors M&S and Ellis Electric for responding on short notice to help pinpoint grid failures during a recent outage.