Spring Break
Response to snow cancellations not fast enough, some students say
Natalie Jurgen
Issue date: 1/22/09 Section: News
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After word Tuesday night of a noon opening on Wednesday many were unprepared for the cancellation of classes.
"I would have liked to have known last night so I could prepare for the day," said junior health fitness specialist major, Mike Hazel, who got word of the cancellation through the student announce emails.
University officials reported that the decision to cancel classes yesterday was made yesterday morning after a reevaluation of the campus.
"The decision was made last night at 10 p.m. to open classes at noon," said Chief Public Affairs Officer John Durham. "It took a while this morning to determine that we weren't getting campus in good enough shape to open up. A good job was done of removing the snow but there was still ice and it seemed like the prudent thing to do."
Several people were involved in the decision making process and the final decision to close campus for the second day was made by Kevin Seitz, the Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance.
Text messages from ECU Alert! were sent at 6:23 a.m. on Tuesday morning to inform students and faculty that campus would be closed for the day. An email was also sent to Piratemail accounts at 9:30 a.m. to inform of the cancellation.
However, ECU was not as quick to announce yesterday's cancellation. ECU Alert! text messages were not sent until 11:04 a.m. and emails were sent at 11:34 a.m., only 26 minutes before campus was scheduled to re-open.
"We're not trying to inconvenience anyone, and are trying to keep campus open as much as we can and let people know of cancellations in a timely fashion," Durham said. "It's always an exact exercise because it is hard to predict the weather."
Light snow began at 4:45 a.m. on Tuesday and continued until 7:45 that night, leaving Greenville covered in two to three inches of snow.
Winter weather advisories were issued urging motorists to take precaution while traveling and to stay off the roads if possible.
Many on-campus events were cancelled due to school's closing including Tuesday's Inauguration viewing and events.
Student Health Services and the Counseling Center were also closed along with an early closing of the Student Recreation Center.
Students are encouraged to check the ECU web site: http://www.ecu.edu/alert for updates.
This writer can be contacted at News@theeastcarolinian.com.
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