Issue date: 12/6/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Kal Dauphinee UMaine's bike trails were covered in snow after Monday's storm.

Many students wonder how the University of Maine decides to call a snow day and what influences the decision-making process.

Joe Carr, director of university relations, said on any day where snow is involved, he communicates with facility staff and the president of the university in regards to the condition of roads and the campus itself.

In accordance with the university's inclement weather policy, the final decision about whether to cancel or postpone daytime classes must be made by 6 a.m. After the decision is made, Carr records the message on 581-SNOW, sends a text message through umaine.txt, and posts to the spotlight section on www.umaine.edu. Carr also said decisions about evening classes will be announced by 2 p.m.

"This is not a decision that is taken lightly, because class time is valuable, and the university is not like public schools. For example, there are no make-up days built into the schedule," Carr said.

While every effort is made to try to preserve the class schedule, Carr said there are times when conditions make it impractical to hold classes.

"To some extent the decision is based on a significant degree of the condition of the roads, parking lots and what will happen to people once they get to campus," Carr said.

One variable in the decision making is that one-third of UMaine students live on campus.

"We have 4,000 students living on campus and a similar number at least live very close," he said. "The overall majority of students are able to travel to campus quite easily."

The university recognizes that commuters have a longer distance to travel. This group of people includes students, faculty and staff members. Carr said it is difficult to make decisions because of the large group that must drive to get to campus.

The policy states there is no rule against a professor who decides to cancel his or her class even when school is still in session.

Laura Lindenfeld, assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism canceled her class on Monday because she felt the roads were unfit for her students to be traveling on. Lindenfeld said that if she had held class she would not have punished students who did not make it to the class.

Continued...

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