Last Friday the UW campus shut down for the first time since 2011 due to unsafe weather conditions.
Chad Baldwin, UW’s director of institutional communications, said the campus closed because of the possibility of worsening weather.
“Ultimately it was a decision made jointly with the Albany County School District, and President McGinity made the final call for the university,” Baldwin said. “It was all weather related. Around 10:15 a.m. was when the decision was made after some discussion with the school district. There was heavy snow falling at the time, models suggested that there was going to be six plus inches falling during the day.”
Baldwin also said the university police department had already responded to multiple accidents on campus that morning and transit services were having difficulty getting the buses around.
The last weather-related campus closure occurred in December of 2011 under similar conditions. This closure took place two weeks after finals week, with many students gone for winter break.
Student response to the closure was positive. Maggie Bauer, a UW student said she found it useful.
“I actually got a lot of reading done, I got caught up for this week on reading so it was really nice,” said Bauer. “I know there are a lot of students that come from Cheyenne that wouldn’t have been able to make it anyway and that just put less stress on those students for sure.”
Shay Neville, an art education student was more critical of the closure.
“I find it comical that after we have 50 to 70 below days and campus is still open that a little bit of snow and some road closures was enough to close us for half a day,” said Neville. He also said he had hoped to continue work on projects that required access to the art museum, but the closure stopped any work planned.
Neville also said he appreciates the university considering their staff and students and the safety hazards involved with recent weather.
Freshman student Stephan Papadopoulos said he also thought the necessity of the snow day was in question, but he did appreciate the break.
“It was nice to have the day off. I definitely got less done because it was a Friday, so I just started my weekend early,” said Papadopoulos. “I didn’t have a strong necessity to go to class that day so I was all right, but for somebody who needed to go to class, not having that as an option, and especially with exams, it could’ve been a hindrance.”
