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UTSA Student Shines During Recent Power Outage at Downtown Campus For the next two hours, the entire campus was without power, save emergency lighting, after a City Public Service feed shut down following an overload caused by the test run of a chiller motor in the Durango Building, now under construction. While everyone remained calm and safe during the episode, the lack of power did force students, faculty and staff to forego stalled elevators and find the stairs...a first for many, who were not sure where to go. Enter Nathan Diaz. The sophomore biology major had a clear view of the Frio Street lobby and its elevators from the New Student Admissions office and Visitor Center, where he has been a work-study student since the summer of 1999. Familiar with the building's physical layout and accustomed to providing information for campus newcomers, Diaz immediately went into action. He made a prompt report to University Police about one passenger trapped temporarily in an elevator. And after putting a recorded message of explanation on the office phones, he went out into the hallway and began assisting those who had questions, directing students to stairs and away from the elevators. He helped Associate Dean Martha Fasci carry her laptop computer and other items to her fourth- floor office. He also took a personal message from a student in a wheelchair to an instructor in a classroom on the third floor, explaining that the student would not be able to get to the class that day. During the eventual evacuation of the Frio Street Building that followed, Diaz remained by the doors to ensure that unsuspecting students would not enter the darkened building. "I was very impressed with the way he handled the situation," said Student Development Specialist Michele Rench, who works nearby in Enrollment Services. After the power came back on and the praise for his efforts began coming in, a modest Diaz would say only that he "just did what he could" to help people. "I'm not sure what all the fuss is about--it just seemed the right thing to do." Send
your comments and items to: UTSAToday@utsa.edu.
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It
was a typical Tuesday morning at the Downtown Campus until the clock
struck 9...and stopped.