By Monday morning (2/21/11) we had at least 12" of snow on the ground. While the snow was supposed to let up around noon on Monday, it did not, with flakes continuing to fall until well into the evening.
Sometime on Sunday evening, the University of Minnesota--Twin Cities decided to close the campus until noon on Monday. By Monday morning, all other Twin Cities colleges and universities had cancelled classes for the entire day. At noon, when the snow was clearly not stopping, the U still did not close the campus for the rest of the afternoon.
I can think of at least 3 reasons the U decided to stay open:
1) with more students staying on campus in dorms, the risk to student safety becomes less
2) faculty complain when they lose a day of class that they had already planned on
3) as the state's flagship university, the U has to keep higher standards than other institutions to avoid the appearance of laziness or "fat-cat-iness" in the eyes of the public/legislature
Yet, when people not affiliated with the U (i.e., news agencies, city officials, etc.) say "don't drive unless it's an emergency," how can the public institution defend staying open? I just heard on the news that there were over 340 crashes on roads yesterday (Monday). Will it take a fatal accident of someone trying to get in to work in a non-emergency office before U officials allow safety to trump other concerns?
As a friend of mine posted on Facebook:
News: "Stay home unless it's an emergency."
Work: "Why would we close?"
Next time the U "generously" grants a 1/2 snow day, I say we should all just stay home as protest. If a university opens but no one attends, is it really a university?
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