Metropolitan State University of Denver’s Operations Department led an after-action review on March 4 of the events surrounding the closure of the Auraria Campus Science Building on Feb. 22-23. Representatives from the Auraria Higher Education Campus, which manages the facility, as well as MSU Denver’s College of Letters, Arts and Sciences; the President’s Office; University Communications and Marketing; and the Chemistry and Math Departments joined in on the robust review of actions and communication around the closure, with the goals of: 

  • Identifying areas of opportunity 
  • Refining processes 
  • Building connections among key stakeholders 

Overview of the incident 

The building closure was initially caused by a failed natural gas regulator outside of the building. The operational failure cut off all natural gas to the Science Building’s heating system in the early morning of Feb. 22. With temperatures in the building quickly plummeting, the decision was made to cancel classes while the issue was addressed, with an all-campus RAVE emergency alert and email disseminated just after 10 a.m. Utilities personnel were quickly dispatched to identify the source of the problem and reinstall a regulator, restoring heat to most portions of the building before noon.  

In terms of occupant health and safety, the gas-regulator failure posed no threat. However, without heat, the building was more vulnerable to low temperatures, resulting in frozen pipes and water leaks in the early afternoon. A portion of the building reopened temporarily. However, after assessing building damage, campus facilities professionals ultimately decided to close the building through Feb. 23, which was announced via an all-campus email just after 4 p.m.   

Crews worked throughout the day to isolate and repair leaks and implement testing and cleanup efforts. Domestic water and heating were restored by floor, and each lab was assessed for safety. The decision to reopen the Science Building, with the exception of isolated rooms, was made at end of business Feb. 23 and communicated via all-campus email just after 6 p.m.   

After-action review

Should the campus ever experience a similar outage in the future, MSU Denver and our tri-institutional partners want to be as prepared as possible to minimize potential impacts. To that end, the after-action review March 4 focused on building a robust timeline of events, affected stakeholders sharing constructive feedback, and creating actions to clarify roles and responsibilities moving forward.  

Valuable, holistic input from all participants resulted in improved understanding of the technical and systems complexities of the issues and impacts to teaching, learning and research. Several specific actions will help prepare for and address future issues, including:  

  • Outlining specific protocols for likely threats to building operations 
  • Clarifying which positions are responsible for on-the-ground assessment and communication to building occupants 
  • Establish proactive systems for forecasted below-freezing temperatures
  • Exploring more targeted communication mechanisms and list segmentation to provide more detailed updates to those directly impacted 

Next steps:

Action items developed during the meeting are currently under review by responsible parties and are being further prioritized.  Members from the Facilities and Operations teams from both AHEC and MSU Denver plan to convene following spring break. If you would like to provide further input on the Science Building outage, please contact [email protected]