Historic Winter Weather: Caring for Students
Dear Parents,
You have likely been following news about the historic winter storms that have impacted much of Texas and battered Waco. In fact, many of you also are experiencing the closures and outages caused by the continuing storms. In the Waco area, nearly half of homes are without power, both from lines that have fallen under the weight of the ice and falling trees and from rolling outages to ensure the stability of the state’s power grid. Some areas are without water due to main lines breaking under the extremely cold temperatures and substations without power. Many of our faculty, staff and students have been without power since Sunday evening.
We know this has been a strain on our students, and we want you to know that we are working diligently to support them through this unprecedented time. Our on-campus residential facilities continue to maintain power and our Aramark team has taken remarkable measures, bringing staff in and housing them near campus, to provide food to our on-campus students in the dining facilities.
We are opening and staffing areas of campus as warming stations for off-campus students who are without power or other services and need to find warmth and shelter, charge their phones and other electronics, and even stay overnight if needed. We will continue to make these facilities available through the duration of this weather emergency. Details about available facilities can be found by clicking on the Baylor Alert on the University’s main web page.
We are monitoring the weather and service outages in and around Waco to ensure we make the best decisions for the wellbeing of our students, faculty and staff and look forward to more normal weather conditions coming this weekend.
We ask, most importantly, for your prayers for our students and our community, and also for your patience and partnership in making sure your students know where to find assistance and shelter on campus if they are in need.
Sincerely,
Linda A. Livingstone, Ph.D. President