When should colleges cancel classes for weather?

When my son was at UT-Austin in 2010, he headed out to class one morning. Austin had gotten a quarter of an inch of snow (literally). He couldn’t figure out why campus was a ghost town. He finally found someone to ask, and they looked at him like he was nuts - “Classes were canceled, of course!” Ha, for a kid who had to walk half a mile to the bus stop through ice and snow for 13 winters in Maine, he was baffled.

Schools have a lot of issues to consider when deciding whether to close. I think parents shouldn’t second-guess them. Up here, it’s common knowledge that businesses, schools, doctors’ offices, etc. give you grace if it’s not safe to drive. If a kid misses class, the professor will cut him/her slack.

I think if it is dangerous for students to walk from the dorm to class (e.g., -50 windchill) they should close school.

My midwestern college prided itself on not closing for weather. Then a car skidded of the road on campus during an ice storm and hit a student who luckily only broke a wrist.

The school closed more often after that.

Schools should close when it’s not safe to travel that day and should excuse students who miss class after a vacation because of bad weather interfering with travel. Students should not be expected to cut a holiday short to come back early.

Our school didn’t cancel classes the Monday after Thanksgiving, despite the (fairly minor) storm. They sent out an email informing the faculty that many students were not able to return because of cancelled flights, etc. and asking that we have mercy on students who were not able to get back in time. The general tendency is to close the school if things are, or are getting, drastic. Since that happens as much as once a semester, they need to be judicious about it.

I went to CU-Boulder and don’t remember ever having a snow day. In my day, we would get to class any way we could; public transportation was a popular option. Wintry weather is a normal occurrence and students should plan accordingly whether that means leaving home earlier if one has to drive or adjusting travel plans.

I work at a law firm. Many people were away for the holiday and it was clear weather was going to be bad on Sunday. But we did not expect anyone to cut their family time short to make it to work on Monday. I went into court for a partner who was stuck out of town. Did the judge say “ why didn’t he leave on Saturday instead? No of Course not. He said “ yeah weathers been terrible let’s reschedule for Friday”.

In real real life ( as opposed to the real life students are sometimes told about) most things are more flexible than schools often act like it is.

It is not reasonable to expect students to reschedule flights (probably booked full anyway and VERY expensive to change last minute) to get back earlier than planned from a break. Not everyone drives back to campus from holiday and can just adjust to the forecast with a weeks notice. That said I don’t think it’s necessary to cancel classes (unless the faculty also can’t make it back, which should be a concern as well.) Just hold class but make it a “special topic” discussion or study day-- not one that is urgent to make up and no penalty for missing.

I’ve never had a job that’s had a snow day or reschedule for weather. I would have to leave 2 hours early for my 50 mile commute if it was bad in the old days. Now I walk the 2 miles and more than once the snow plow driver has picked me up. He is my co-worker though.

But our policy is to never close otherwise they would have to pay emergency personnel overtime pay. However, they will close the library and parks and rec stuff and those employees must use vacation time or not get paid. I prefer my option of being able to come in.

I don’t think schools should close unless it was an unusual situation. But I don’t think students should be penalized if they can’t make it in. (I’m also not a fan of teachers who use attendance for grading purposes. )

Well for starters they can choose not to travel Thanksgiving week if they don’t have enough time off. They can stay in their apartments and prepare food in their kitchens. Not an option at most schools for dorm residents. You must travel home. It is very costly and families want to make the most of their travel dollars. Closing for the full week is not a bad idea. Is it knowable before you “sign up”? Sure, but with all the other factors that go into a college decision, including where you are actually admitted and what you can afford, I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect people to avoid a college due to their Thanksgiving break schedule.

Another reason warm weather schools aren’t the answer: hurricanes!

My D graduated from U of South Carolina in May. Classes were cancelled at least one day every year (and an entire week when she was a freshman) because of hurricanes / heavy rains. The school is well inland, but is in the path of evacuees from the coastal communities. In fact, the direction of travel on some major highways is “flipped” so vehicles can only drive away from the coast during hurricane conditions. I was annoyed at first (“I’m paying for those classes!”), until I realized that a few cancelled classes is nothing compared to ensuring safety.

She did cut winter break short one year to avoid a snowstorm up north (we’re from PA and her roommate, who was driving, is from CT). I doubt that we would have paid more than a token amount to change the ticket, which supports @garland’s advice to save your allowed absences for a good reason.

@maya54 My firm has closed only a handful of times on account of wintry weather. It’s also rare for school districts or colleges to close where I live. Sure, one can choose to miss work/school, but it will still be business as usual in your absence. And too many absences on account of weather is frowned upon.

In the case in my original post, I was more amused than anything at the thought of closing the college and the exasperation of the parents when very, very few school districts closed and there were only a handful of businesses closed–everything in the college’s town stayed open.

I also believe that colleges should cancel when it is dangerous to walk across campus, or when driving conditions are so severe (we have categories here in Ohio) that businesses are closing and employees would be putting themselves in danger to drive.

I think colleges cancelling classes in consideration of traveling-in students after a break is a lose-lose. Parents complain if classes aren’t cancelled, parents who planned ahead/moved flights/live locally/ would complain if classes ARE cancelled. Hold classes, have professors be understanding for weather related travel absences.

We are about 35 minutes from my daughter’s school. We heard that it was going to start snowing around 8pm Sunday night. Still the school allowed people to contact campus and come back Saturday night or anyone could just come back as of 8am Sunday. My younger daughter had a special event 2-3pm that my oldest wanted to see so we left around 3:30.

It started snowing when we were just a few minutes from campus. We didn’t get out of the car just dropped her off. Within that short amount of time the roads were already bad. We saw several accidents including a 6 car pile up on the road we just came from. The main highway was even worse including a pick up truck with plow attachment just about completely engulfed with flames (looked like driver was already safely out) and when we called emergency number they had already received several calls. Our anti lock brakes kicked in a few times. The closer we got to home though the weather, while snowing, was not nearly as bad.

By 10pm my daughter already had 13 inches of snow with another 1.5 feet anticipated by Tuesday morning. There was also periods of rain mixed in so there was actually more snow and some was pretty icy. They cancelled Monday which I thought was good for commuters. Tuesday I don’t think they were open but I know one of my daughter’s Tuesday classes was done online for the professor’s convenience so perhaps it was optional. They ended up with about 2 feet of snow.

On the other hand close to my area the weather was not nearly as bad Sunday into Monday. I was glad they my younger daughter had school since I was chaperoning a field trip further away from older daughter’ s school. After school activities were cancelled Monday more so knowing teachers may have a long commute so they like them to have a chance to drive home in daylight when they know some are driving into bad weather areas. Tuesday was actually worse where I live and school was cancelled all over my area but probably more due to icy conditions. I never heard our snow total but i would say 6 to 8 inches at most. Fortunately it stopped snowing early enough to shovel out Tuesday night and roads were treated overnight.

The Tues before thanksgiving, Boulder got about 15" of snow. The public schools and the University were already closed for Thanksgiving but if they hadn’t been they certainly would have been closed (staff was told not to report). A few private schools closed plus many businesses were closed due to weather.

The biggest problem? The parking lots at Eldora ski area (about 20 miles up the canyon where they probably had 20" of snow) were full (and not fully plowed). They had to turn people back and shuttle them in buses and pick ups because everyone wanted to ski.

So people couldn’t possibly go to work or school but could drive up the canyon to go skiing!

Overall I think:

  1. the campus should stay open if the campus area itself is travelable, but close if it’s reasonably certain it won’t be
  2. I think it should stay open if the question is students who might have travel difficulties from other areas
  3. I think professors should make an effort to be understanding of students whose travel plans get messed up by weather
  4. At the same time, I don’t think they (we) should change the class plans for that day. Any day of the semester, someone’s liable to be absent, and need to find out what is missed. That’s just part of being a student. (I think having a major test scheduled for that day would be bad planning, tbh).

Signed,

Sympathetic prof who needs to provide for the students who are here, and make allowances for the students who can’t be.

I’ll give a big ditto to @garland

My senior year we had class on a day it was minus 21 deg F. I lived off campus. I am surprised my truck started that day.

Fun times.

Up until about ten years ago, my DH would clear the driveway and drive his one hour commute to work regardless of the weather. Now, he can do so much work remotely that he just doesn’t go into the office on days when the roads are awful in the morning.

When I was a kid in Ohio, we never had a snow day. One time we had off because the temps were well below zero. That was back when we all went to neighborhood schools and walked to and from school twice every day because we all went home for lunch.

Now, that same town has snow days…because several schools have closed and just about everyone takes the bus to school. Some mornings…it’s just not safe to run these buses. It isn’t.

Like my college the grade school I went to in the Midwest changed its “ we are in the Midwest we don’t close for snow” mindset when an accident occurred. Luckily no one was hurt but a bus skidded at the school during heavy snow and hit the building. Lots more snow days after that.