As recently reported by local news outlets, there is an extremely high likelihood of electrical fluctuations “brownouts” or full electrical outages that might occur due to extraordinary strain on area electrical grids due to increased demand during current severe weather.
All sensitive technology equipment should be powered down and unplugged as possible. Computers and technology equipment can often absorb minor power fluctuations and electrical disruptions, but strong electrical surges or rapid, prolonged fluctuations can cause severe harm to computers and technology equipment. Please consider all of the computers and other technology serving your workspaces or research labs and take appropriate action to shut down and unplug all important technology equipment as you are able.
If you have remote access to your office or research computers on campus, we encourage you to shut them down tonight prior to any power outages. Once you have powered them off, you will no longer be able to access them remotely. Remember, you will need to connect to SMU VPN prior to establishing the remote desktop connection.
If you have never connected to your office machine from off-campus, chances are it is not currently configured to allow the connection. If you’d like us to try and power it off remotely, please send an email to help@smu.edu and include your computer tag number (if you know it!).
All public computer labs and classroom computers and AV systems were powered off remotely earlier today.
Stay safe!
