A steady onslaught of wintry mix Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning forced Georgetown administrators to cancel all classes on the main campus and the School of Medicine Wednesday.
Georgetown’s closing was one of a string of closings and late-openings throughout the District and the greater Metro area yesterday.
Karen Frank, the Vice-President of Facilities and Student Housing, consulted with the heads of other campuses and took into account the state of facilities on campus, weather predictions and traffic reports to determine if faculty and staff could get to work safely, according to University spokesperson Julie Bataille.
Howard University also closed, while George Washington University and American University opened late, at 10:30 and 11 a.m.
James Sandefur, a professor in the Department of Mathematics, applauded the University’s decision to close.
He recalled a worse ice storm several years ago when the University decided not to shut down, even though he thought that it was unsafe to drive or walk.
“They appeared to have too little concern for the safety of students and faculty. It is not worth risking injury for one day of classes,” Sandefur wrote in an e-mail. “Maybe they should have [only] canceled morning classes. But one missed day is not going to overly mess things up. I will be able to make up the lost time.”
Emergency employees, such as those who work for facilities or in Leo O’Donovan Dining Hall, were not able to enjoy the snow day. Ruth Wheeler, a Leo’s employee, braved the District’s icy streets yesterday to get to work from the Anacostia area by 10:30 a.m.
“It was kind of messy,” Wheeler said. Despite the nasty conditions, she came to campus with Valentine’s Day cheer, her cheek adorned with sparkly red heart stickers.
Another Leo’s employee, Tiffany Upshur, who rides the Metro to work, said that the trains were running smoothly, though they were delayed seven minutes and were unusually crowded yesterday at around 11:30 a.m. Federal agencies in D.C. opened two hours later than usual, which forced the Metro to extend its rush hour service to 11 a.m.
Students had mixed reactions to the closure.
“I would have rather had classes,” Montana Mathieu (SFS ‘10) said.
“I did a lot of work for them … I think [the decision] should have been on an individual professor basis.”
Many other Georgetown students treated their day off as a good old-fashioned snow day, though.
“We had a snowball fight, with four people,” Drew Peterson (SFS ’10) said.
“It was a pretty lame snowball fight.”
