FILE PHOTO: A view of the Williams Village East dorm. (Aug. 30, 2019) (Robert Tann/CU Independent)
Alexia: Hi! I’m Alexia Bailey, a sophomore here at CU Boulder. While I may just be in my second year, I’m here to share everything I’ve picked up so far, which is a surprising amount of information. “What’s Eating at Alexia” is my unofficial and unfiltered guide to some of the things that being a CU Boulder Buff brings. Think of it as your guide to navigating everything that makes CU Boulder, well, CU Boulder. Whether you’re a freshman finding your footing or a senior with “no body, no crime” level grievances about finals week, I’m here to share my takes, tips and honest observations on everything from the sometimes-unpredictable Buff Bus system to navigating campus protests (or dodging them entirely). College is a wild, unforgettable ride, and “What’s eating at Alexia” is here to make sense of some of it, one opinion at a time.
Williams Village is home to the debatably worst dorms on the University of Colorado Boulder campus. Every year, incoming freshmen cross their sweaty fingers and pray that they won’t end up on that side of campus. As someone who now lives there, I have to say, it’s not the worst place to live. The buses are decent when they actually come on time, the rooms are bigger than the ones on the main campus, and there’s even a Dairy Queen and a liquor Store across the street. But there’s one thing Williams Village can’t seem to get right: keeping the lights on.
On Monday, Nov. 10, William’s Village lost power, and it’s really concerning how people began to act when the lights went dark. People were screaming outside, shining flashlights in first-floor windows and lighting off fireworks. It felt wholly college and dystopian at the same time.
The outage hit around 8:30 p.m., right when everyone was either studying or, more realistically, doom-scrolling on TikTok. Within minutes, the entire building went dark. The humming of the AC stopped, Wi-Fi cut out mid-Zoom and people fled to the hallways to see what the heck had just happened. You’d think after this many outages, someone in Facilities Management would have figured out how to keep the dorm power on, but apparently not.
It’s not like this is the first time. My roommate, who lived in one of the Stearns dorms last year, quickly informed me that power outages at Will Vill are practically a semesterly tradition. Sometimes it’s caused by “equipment malfunction.” Other times, it’s weather-related. The worst part? It’s not just the inconvenience at this point. I think I could get over that. It’s the sheer lack of communication. Students are left to group chat rumors and RAs who are just as in the dark (literally) as we are. When you live in a dorm that already feels like an afterthought, it’s hard not to take it personally when no one seems to care that your fridge full of groceries is starting to spoil, your homework is due online and your building no longer feels like a safe place because there are people screaming and flashing lights through your windows.
And let’s talk about safety. Walking down pitch-black hallways with emergency lights flickering like a bad horror movie isn’t exactly reassuring. Elevators stop working, key card readers glitch out and people get stuck outside or inside their dorms. It’s uncomfortable and dangerous. Yet somehow, every time we complain, we’re told to “be patient” while facilities “assess the issue.”
Meanwhile, the main campus rarely experiences these outages. It’s almost like Williams Village exists in a different time zone, where power reliability is optional. We pay the same tuition, the same housing fees, and yet we’re the ones constantly told to “hang tight” while maintenance trucks roll in hours later. There’s also the academic side of it. Losing power in the middle of an online exam or while submitting a paper isn’t just frustrating; it’s academic sabotage. Professors might give extensions, but not always. And when Wi-Fi takes hours to come back, you can kiss any productivity goodbye.
Let’s not forget those of us who rely on power for accessibility reasons, students who use assistive technology, medical equipment, or simply need the elevators working to get around. When the power goes out, those students are left stranded. It’s not just an inconvenience; it’s a blatant failure in ensuring basic accessibility and equity. At this point, the pattern is predictable: blackout, confusion, group chat panic, delayed or no CU alert, no apology email, rinse, repeat. We shouldn’t have to treat reliable power as a luxury in 2025, especially not at a university that prides itself on innovation and sustainability. If Williams Village really is the “future” of CU housing, as the administration claims with every new construction project, then maybe the future should include electricity that stays on for more than a week at a time.
Until then, we’ll keep living by flashlight, charging our phones in the dining hall and hoping that next time, the power outage doesn’t strike during finals coming up. Because while other students worry about finals and finding a study spot, Williams Village residents have a different kind of anxiety: waiting for the next blackout.
Contact CU Independent Opinion Editor Alexia Bailey at alexia.bailey@colorado.edu
