When it rains, it pours. But when it snows, things get complicated.
“I commute, and even though my first class was canceled, I still didn’t want to drive in the crappy weather,” junior Enny Cleaveland said. “I had to leave a lot earlier than usual because the roads were so bad.”
Many Saint Louis University students were surprised when the school remained open after receiving close to six inches of snow last week, especially while several other local schools canceled classes. While the snow threw students off, the president of SLU TV and SLU News 22 weatherman, David Koeller, said that this was nothing out of the ordinary.
“The average snowfall we usually get is 19 inches,” Koeller said. “[In] the past few years we’ve been under that. This is the closest we’ve been to a normal year.”
According to Koeller, this storm was one of the largest St. Louis has had in three years, making this January the sixth snowiest on record. Despite this, however, he feels that the school made the right choice in staying open.
“I feel there should have at least been a delay, given the road conditions at 8 a.m.,” said Koeller. “But it didn’t qualify for a cancelation.”
A University spokesperson said that the decision to close the school during bad weather is based on the University’s ability to reasonably clear campus sidewalks and parking areas in time for classes and other operations to begin as scheduled.
Alternatively, the school has the choice to run on a snow schedule. According to SLU’s Emergency Operations and Closure Policy, a snow schedule “Refers to the situation in which all classes before 10:00 a.m. are suspended, but all other classes are held, all other University activities are continued, and operations and offices of the University continue on their normal schedule.”
While the decision to either run on a snow schedule or cancel classes depend on how quickly the University can clear the snow, the type of closure the school goes with is decided on a storm-to-storm basis. According to the closure policy, the responsible authorities for closure due to inclement weather are the academic vice-presidents for both the Frost and Health Sciences Campus
Should the school decide on a delay or a closure, students can be notified by calling the SLU Snowline, otherwise know as 977-SNOW (7669), but there are other ways to get the information.
“I haven’t heard of Snowline,” freshman Gabrielle Snow said.” I just checked my email for updates from my professors.”
Closure announcements are also sent to local news channels, KMOX Radio, and a closure alert would be posted on the SLU homepage. The University also has the option to use its emergency communication system to contact students, faculty and staff about schedule changes, which would use landlines and cell phones to notify individuals.
While the snow caused havoc for some, others remained unfazed.
“I live in St. Louis, so I’m prepared for the snow,” freshman Mike Viviano said. “I wasn’t expecting the school to close, so it wasn’t really a hiccup in my plans.”
