Andress High’s graduation back on at Haskins Center; will be at 9 p.m.

A power outage during its graduation ceremony Thursday morning has led to Andress having to move its ceremony to 9 p.m. at the Don Haskins Center.

The ceremony was initially moved to 7 p.m. at El Paso High before it was moved back to the Haskins Center, it’s original location.

A UTEP spokeswoman said the power went out on the UTEP campus at the Geological Building at about 9:30 a.m. and it spread to 5 other buildings, including the Don Haskins Center.

About 4,000 students and spectators were in the Haskins Center when the building lost power around 9:30 a.m.

Emergency lights powered by a backup generator immediately turned on. Spectators who were there for the scheduled 10 a.m. graduation ceremony remained in the building as they waited for the power to be restored.

At 11:35 a.m., the decision was made to evacuate the Haskins Center.

Power was restored to the Haskins Center around 12:30 p.m.

“The safety of those on our campus is our main priority,” said UTEP Police Chief Cliff Walsh. “At no time was there an immediate threat to anyone’s safety. We are pleased this and other graduations can continue as scheduled.”

Summer classes on campus are not being affected by the outage.

The power outage occurred on UTEP’s system but El Paso Electric crews are working with UTEP to help them restore power.

UTEP receives power from EPE.

Graduation ceremonies for Sunset High School (3 p.m.) and Transmountain Early College High School (7 p.m.) today will take place at the Haskins Center as scheduled.

The cause of the power outage is still being investigated.

Read UTEP’s full news release on the outage at http://news.utep.edu/?p=25287