<p>Normal operations are suspended as recovery efforts continue. The University will not conduct final exams next week as scheduled.</p>
<p>Students will have the option of accepting their existing grades as of April 27, 2011, or they can take a final exam at a later date. For those students who request to take a final exam, faculty will have the option of scheduling the final exam on site when normal operations resume or via distance education means.</p>
<p>This schedule change includes all enrolled students except those in the School of Law and School of Medicine. Their academic calendars vary and they should be in touch with their faculty for confirmation of their exam schedule.</p>
<p>Faculty should communicate with their students via e-learning or their normal means as facilities are restored. Students should know that not all faculty will have communication capabilities immediately.</p>
<p>Commencement exercises scheduled for May 7, 2011, have been rescheduled for Aug. 6, 2011, when May and August graduates will be recognized.</p>
<p>These steps are being taken to allow students impacted by the storms to return to their homes while recovery efforts continue in the Tuscaloosa area.</p>
<p>These changes are in keeping with academic guidelines that are part of the emergency operations and recovery plans for the campus.</p>
<p>RobD, we too will be returning to campus next week. I hope city officials will allow traffic into t-Town. My D has been through a F4 tornado once before, so she knew she would be of little help to the cleanup efforts. As you said in the other thread, at some point you are just draining respources, and need to bu out.
This so sad, but I applaud UA’s quick decisions on campus closings. I think they were left with no other choice.</p>
<p>I have a flight booked for next Thursday down there but am wondering if it might just be better to drive down this weekend and pack all lil bro’s stuff up and drive him home. </p>
<p>I’m guessing the storage facilities may be full in the next day or so with all the people needing places for their belongings.</p>
<p>We are also wondering about access for moving out. D is packing as much as possible now and heading home, but I am hoping the housing people will put out a notice to let us know what to expect.<br>
A police friend is contacting the Alabama highway patrol now to find out about the roads - I’ll share any pertinent info when I get it.
Be safe, everyone.</p>
<p>thinking the same things - storage may not now be possible, if not, have to determine if we can drive in from Chicago and lug stuff back. wonder if they will mandate leaving etc… please everone lets put all real info we get here so we can all plan. RTR!</p>
<p>Mike, my D got on the road today before she knew of the closing. So we will need to go back next week. As far as she has reported, the students in dorms were safe. Darn cell phones and their batteries, hope you hear soon from your D.</p>
<p>I’m thankful the cell towers weren’t brought down. That happened in our town when we had a F4 in 2005.</p>
<p>D just left. Her friend assured me that he has a full tank of gas. On my weather message board, I’m hearing that people from North Alabama are coming all the way up to mile marker 43 in TN to find gas. </p>
<p>The plan (?) is that she will go back next week; she thinks she wants to take one of her exams but I’m thinking she should just bag it. </p>
<p>She sounds a little better now than earlier this morning. </p>
<p>Mike: D is having such a hard time with her phone. She’s standing still and losing the call. And when I call her it rolls right to voicemail. With internet down, no email or FB. I was checking her UA email for her because they were supposed to have a mandatory study abroad meeting. AND since there’s no power, if her phone lost her charge she’ll have to wait a while to power it back up. {{Hugs}} to you. She’s OK, you know that since you talked to her last night.</p>
<p>I talked to friends who are heading to FL on I-65 today, and they said gas lines were a mile long at stations north of Birmingham. The city of Bham seemed normal to them. I talked to them at noon.</p>
<p>We are allowed to stay in the dorms until Saturday, May 7 at 10am. Personally, I’m going to see if I can take oral finals rather than having to work out a proctoring situation.</p>
<p>Be careful…make sure you get all gas, cash and food you may need way before you get close to T-town.</p>
<p>Let us know how you made out.</p>
<p>Again, I’ve been a long-time lerker and posted a few times as my DD (high school sophomore) is interested in UA…and we have a few close classmates of my son there.</p>