The control room of UTV-13 flooded last night, forcing the station to cancel all new programming for the next few days.
A ceiling panel in the control room, which houses UTV's sound equipment, collapsed under the weight of sewage from showers and toilets in Stouffer College House, according to Wharton sophomore Samantha Rudolph, the station's vice president of business administration and acting president.
UTV -- Penn's student-run television network -- is currently airing repeats, but staffers hope the station will be back on its feet by Monday, broadcasting from a makeshift studio in the staff lounge.
The ceiling panel buckled slightly after 8 p.m. last night, just as the hosts of "Penn Sports Weekly" were about to go on air.
"This is not a drip," said UTV Vice President of Production and Programming David Price. The panel "flew off," he said.
Once they learned of the problem, UTV staff members rushed into the control room and started moving equipment -- some of which was brand new -- out of the way of the cascading sewage.
"Luckily, we were here to respond immediately," Rudolph said. "Imagine if this happened four hours later."
The control room contained about $35,000 worth of equipment, according to Engineering freshman Joshua Gorin, UTV's vice president of broadcast operations. Gorin said he believes the staff was able to remove the most expensive equipment from room before it sustained too much damage.
"So far all the equipment, though some of it is wet, has been salvaged," Gorin said.
But since the equipment cannot be plugged in when wet, staffers will not know the full extent of the damage until it all dries out.
Following the flood last night, several bathrooms in Stouffer College House -- which is located directly above UTV's studios -- were declared off limits, and Rudolph said maintenance workers informed her that they would send a plumber to the dormitory.
The facilities employee who answered the University's emergency maintenance number last night would not comment on the flood or give his name. The employee referred all questions to his supervisor, who was not on duty last night.
Last night's incident was the fourth time in a year that UTV has been plagued by floods. Several months ago, part of its lounge flooded, and its hallway has been deluged with water twice since September. The latter two incidents were attributed to faulty pumps in Stouffer, Rudolph said.
"[We're] very frustrated by the facilities we have here," Price said. "Our control room is right under these water pipes that have the capacity for flooding."
