When I started Uni support, every bench of computers had a kill switch for the power. I think it was from the previous use of the room, rather than any specific requirement to have a kill switch on every bench.
A few times, someone (be it a student or lecturer) would come in and muck around with the big red button (which was labelled emergency shutoff), and power down the entire bench, not giving the students using the computers on that bench time to save their work..
Biting the hand that feeds IT
