The water supply in three academic buildings was turned off for four hours Thursday so the connection to the new Human Services Building could be finalized.

Faculty members were e-mailed in advance to tell students of the outage that lasted from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Klehm, Coleman and Lumpkin halls.

“I think it was a terrible idea to do in the middle of the day,” said English professor Bonnie Irwin, while sitting in her office in Coleman. “There are hundreds of students and faculty members in those three buildings – it’s the busiest time of the day for classes. It was a major inconvenience.”

Carol Strode, interim director of facilities planning and management, said notice of the outage was posted in the University Newsletter on April 1, but that notices were sent out March 27.

Some teachers were able to plan around the water outage.

“They warned us two or three times via e-mail,” Stephen Larson, a financing professor, said. “I filled up two canisters of water before I came to work and I ran to Booth (Library) to use the bathroom.”

The majority of interviewed students said the water outage did not affect them.

The water outage finalized a three-week project that began with the closing of Seventh Street March 10. Construction workers from Brinkoetter & Sons connected utility lines from the city of Charleston to the new Human Services building. Seventh Street was also re-opened earlier this week.

Brooks said some food labs associated with dietetics would have been affected, but they only meet Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

But Irwin still wished the water outage would have come at a more convenient time.

“Construction workers were out there at 7 a.m.,” she said. “Usually I don’t complain, but this got me pretty ticked off.”