A power outage on campus interrupted classes and work for hundreds on the UA campus yesterday afternoon.

The outage, which began at about 2:15 p.m., spread from the Integrated Learning Center to the Life Sciences South building, and included the Student Union Memorial Center and Campus Health Center, among other buildings.

John Brown, spokesman for Tucson Electric Power Co., said the outage resulted from a communication failure between the university's system and TEP.

"There are communication links that allow TEP's electric systems to talk to UA's electric systems," Brown said. "The cause of the failure is unknown."

An investigation is underway, however, to determine whether service work performed on campus yesterday by the company that connects the two systems had anything to do with the power failure, Brown said.

"It's likely that it's not a coincidence," Brown said, but added, "It's hard to know."

When the lights went out, many students and employees wandered outside, forced to abandon their work.

"We've been shut out of the lab for half an hour, and I've been working on my senior thesis, which is on deadline," said molecular and cellular biology senior Kristen Drumm as she waited outside the Biological Sciences West building.

A few buildings away, outside the Family and Consumer Sciences building, Stephanie Rothery said she became frustrated when she had to stop working on a group PowerPoint presentation in the building when the power went out.

"I just want a diet Coke," said the retailing and consumer sciences junior, who added that she couldn't buy a drink because even the vending machines didn't work.

Rothery said she had recently saved her presentation, but students in the ILC were not so lucky

"It's pretty upsetting," said pre-computer science sophomore Will Lewis, who lost a four-page English paper.

Groans filled the lower level of the ILC as the screens on more than 100 computers turned black.

Lindsay Baugh, a pre-business freshman, was working with two classmates on a business math project when the power went out.

Baugh said they had worked on the project for about an hour and a half before the electricity shut off.

"Saving is good," she said, after losing changes to the project because she didn't save.

Heather Watson, a German studies sophomore said the power outage did not set her back, but her CD did become stuck in an ILC computer.

Librarians took contact information from students whose disks were trapped inside the machines, said Jim Fromm, senior program coordinator for the library.

Fromm said that while the students who were working on floppy or zip disks will get their materials back, those who were working off the desktops would only be able to recover what they last saved.

While some felt inconvenienced by the power outage, others took advantage of the break it gave them.

Some students who were forced out of Biological Sciences West building spent their scheduled class time listening to music by Notorious B.I.G. on a laptop.

Employees in the Family and Consumer Sciences building called the outage a "bonding experience."

"People came out of their offices," said Melinda Burke, director of the Southwest Retail Center. "Everybody was sharing."

TEP restored power to the affected area of campus around 3:30 p.m. by temporarily bypassing the system, Brown said.