<p>...perhaps you can share what provisions you and your child have made for dealing with the following scenario:</p>
<p>Assume that it's December, at the end of the first semester at your child's college. Your child's last exam is on Tuesday, say, and the dorms close on Wednesday. Your child is scheduled to take a train/bus/plane/ride with a friend from the college to your home on Wednesday. But on Wednesday morning, it starts to snow, heavily. Travel is not possible on that day. But staying at the college is not possible, either, since the dorms are closing.</p>
<p>What have you told your child to do in this situation, and what have you done to prepare for it?</p>
<p>We are lucky enough to have a good friend nearby the college who would put up daughter any time.</p>
<p>But Northern colleges understand about snow and I think you should call the Residence hall office and ask if they would extend the opening time of the dorms in such an emergency. Or let kids sleep with sleeping bags in the Student Union-Center or whatever? In the case of an airport, if the kids can get there, it's not a terrible thing for young people to bring sleeping bags and spend a night (hopefully only one!) in the airport. If you are already there, you get first chance to get out when flights are leaving again. Less favorable to spend night at bus terminal or train station. Worst case, figure out what local hotels, motels would be possibilities--have a few because in bad weather they fill up fast.</p>
<p>I worked in Res Life in Boston in my grad years. We always had a hall open during breaks for various reasons (athletes, special cases). Those snowed in wouldn't have a problem staying for an extra day or two.</p>
<p>As the hall director, I lived in my apartment year round...there was no going home to mommy and daddy for me! While my building "closed" at certain times, it never really shut down because I was there, along with a Jesuit.</p>
<p>At the college my daughter will be attending next fall, her normal mode of transportation home during breaks will be a charter bus that stops on the campus itself. Thus, there is no airport or train or bus terminal in which she could wait, which is part of the reason why I posed this question.</p>
<p>You've already given me one good idea. It might be prudent for a student in her situation to own a sleeping bag -- something I would never have thought of myself.</p>
<p>It had not occurred to me that the college might provide practical help in this situation. After all, the students are adults. I thought they would be expected to solve this problem on their own.</p>
<p>Of course, I will bring up this issue next fall at Parent Orientation. But I'm sure half the room (the half that lives in the North) will burst out laughing, and somebody will say "I bet you're from Washington, DC. You people are total weather wimps." And of course, that person would be right.</p>
<p>We pay the colleges way too much for them to just say "your on your own" in an emergency! They usually see themselves as in partnership with the parents for the general welfare of the students--my D's college's Dean of Students wrote us a very nice letter before orientation making this point.</p>
<p>While not an impossible scenario (obviously) I think you'd be surprised (perhaps terrified) of the weather it would take to stop charter buses from traveling. Honestly, I've lived in Rochester NY for over 35 years of my life and it is pretty rare that the NY state thruway has been closed for weather. And even then, the truckers and buses just take the alternative routes. I can only think of a handful of times when just about all travel has been stopped.</p>
<p>I think you'll be pleasantly surprised that colleges really don't abandon kids. If there was a charter bus of kids who couldn't leave, they'd certainly put a roof over their heads one way or another.</p>
<p>This scenario happened this fall at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Because of the heavy snow and cancelled flights all over the place, the university kept the dorms open for several days after their scheduled closure. They had to; a lot of kids weren't able to fly out until Christmas Day! I-25, I-70, and I-76 were all closed at varying times, so your bus scenario would be covered by this as well. We live about 1 1/2 hours away from Boulder and our D was delayed driving home by almost 2 days. </p>
<p>CU was very accommodating. If your school is in an area where they regularly receive snow, they usually have contingency plans to deal with this and don't just close the dorms and say "Get out." I don't recall if Food Services stayed open, for some reason I don't think they did. So that may be another factor to consider (having a stash of goods just in case, or extra $$$ on hand to get something to eat).</p>
<p>I actually think having a sleeping bag isn't a bad idea, by the way.</p>
<p>Columbia never closes the dorms; S sometimes spends New Years Eve there. So, though it's unlikely that anyone would get snowed in (it takes a lot to close down nYC), they'd always have their own bed to go back to.</p>
<p>Your scenario isn't really all that realistic. Places that regularly get a lot of snow also do a pretty good job of handling it, clearing the roads, etc. Places that don't regularly get a lot of snow close down a lot faster, but you're talking about an event that happens once every couple of years or so, and positing that it happens on a specific day out of maybe 80-100 days in the season. All in all, it's not very likely to occur during your child's four years of college (during some of which he may not be living in a dorm that shuts down).</p>
<p>If it did happen, I can't imagine a university housing office sending "storm" troopers through the buildings to clear the few remaining kids out. If it did, I'm sure there would be some kind of backup plan.</p>
<p>But, honestly, I've never heard of this happening.</p>
<p>If it happened in Boulder, Colorado (see ColoradoMomof2's post), it can happen anywhere that gets snow.</p>
<p>In fact, it could be an issue even if the college isn't located in a very snowy area. For example, a student who lives in Boulder, Colorado but attends the University of Florida might have been unable to get home during the snow situation that ColoradoMomof2 described. In my own family's situation (college in upstate New York, home in the Washington, DC area), I am just as concerned about snow at home (rare but when it does occur, everything grinds to a halt for days) than about snow in the college community (where people know how to cope).</p>
<p>It's always a good idea to be prepared for such contingencies, and it's more difficult for college students to prepare than it is for adults. We have cars. We have credit cards. We can rent hotel rooms and cars. College kids often do not have cars, and they may only have debit cards that debit an account with a low balance. Some hotels won't do business with them, and rent-a-car agencies won't, either. </p>
<p>So it doesn't hurt to think about these things.</p>
<p>As for searching the dorms for stray kids, I certainly hope that the universities do this. At my son's college (UMCP), at the exact hour when the dorms close, the electronic locks change so that the kids' ID cards will no longer let them in. I have to hope that the buildings are then searched. If they weren't, there could be real danger to any remaining kids, since the maintenance staff fumigates all the buildings with toxic insecticides during each break! (How the heck does Columbia deal with bug problems if they never close their dorms?)</p>
<p>A total shut down would be unusual and short if it did indeed happen. We lived in New England a few years and only a severe ice storm slowed down the flow of life for more than a day. </p>
<p>Worst case scenario, find the winter athletes since most of them are usually required to stay around campus for the majority of winter break. Some sort of housing and dining arrangements must be in place for them, right? RIGHT?! (Yes, I'm a slightly nervous parent sending my kiddo into such a situation next year!)</p>
<p>We are in the Boston area and have a D at BC. All of her suitemates and their parents know that in the event of any type of catastophe, snow or otherwise, everyone is welcomed to our house. Honestly, I have lived in this area for almost 30 years and I can't remember things totally closing for more than a day (although I did miss the 78 blizzard). Snow doesn't worry me, but a fear of terrorist attacks does. I always tell my children that if something horrific happens, to first go to an ATM and take out as much money as they can. Weird -yes, I know, but for some reason I feel comfort knowing they would have some money in their pockets, while they try to get home.</p>
<p>Marian, I'm in the Deep, Deep South, and my D is at Dartmouth. THere is a dorm open Dor internationals, etc at all times. No food in the cafeteria, that's another story, maybe not much heat, but a place to sleep. I also think in a pinch she might be able to spend one night in her room, I think Res Life will help them with those situations.
As someone else said, though, the bus tends to run in all weathers. A more realistic problem to me, is that she gets to Boston, and can't make her flight. Or that she is at home and can't get back because of snow in Boston. We've discussed sleeping in airports, etc. Luckily we have good friends in Atl (you almost always go through Atl) who could rescue her, and she has ideas about what to do if stuck in Boston.</p>
<p>just one of many conversations we had before she went off so far on her own.</p>
<p>One of son's Christmas presents this year was a sleeping bag. But it is so compact, it is made of some sort of down alternative and rated to zero degrees. It easily fits in his backpack with books and all sorts of other stuff. I don't know the brand, but he takes it everywhere with him. When his flight was delayed many hours after Christmas he just pulled it out at the airport and was good to go. Takes it with him when he visits he friends at other unis. I could not get over how small it gets, compared to how fluffy it is when unrolled!</p>
<p>Most areas that deal with snow are really quite good about it. "Snow Days" when schools are closed are very rare except in ice storms and real blizzards. The snow really needs to start around midnight and snow at least 10 inches. Timing is everything! If it stops and the roads can be plowed then the big yellow buses press on. At the college level, even in the worst case there usually is advance warning and kids have time to at least know what they are up against. Having a credit card is a good thing.</p>
<p>Actually, worrying about the airport your kid is going to use makes at least a little sense. Logan seems to have problems all the time -- it doesn't take a major storm to shut it down.</p>
<p>Marian--I assume they fumigate in the summer, after the year was over. Actually, I'd just as soon not have anything sprayed around while he was living there, even if gone on the break at the time.</p>
<p>I don't think I'd worry much. We live in the Boston area, and H flies in and out of Logan several times a month -- the only weather-related cancellation he's experienced in the last few years was in Chicago. Flights can be delayed, or course, for a variety of reasons, so it's probably a good idea to be careful of the time of day your studetn travels. In any case, I'm sure that most colleges would deal with a weather problem of the magnitude that closed airports or cancelled buses.</p>
<p>One thing that gives me some peace of mind with a student who has to fly back and forth is the fact that he carries a MasterCard with his own name on it, but it is our account. (It's an account we don't use much anymore.) He knows he can not charge ANYTHING on there without prior approval from us, unless, of course, it is an emergnecy. Now, maybe not all kids can be trusted with that, but if you think your kid can be, and if s/he is traveling a lot, it just feels good to know they could at least eat for awhile at an airport if they had to, or change flights in an emergency, or whatever. (BTW I do not consider having to spend one night at an airport a big deal. No hotels for that.)</p>
<p>He has also used the credit card when he had to order some expensive sheet music online that I was willing to pay for, a really expensive antibiotic, a fairly expensive knee brace - that sort of stuff.</p>