By McKenna Cardwell For students and staff, the daily commute to school or work was once again interrupted by winter weather Monday, Feb. 27. Campus remained open all day despite the snowfall and a recent petition calling for increased access for disabled students during extreme weather. When the snow began to pile up again on Monday, a Western Weather Advisory was sent out at 4:03 p.m. saying the campus would remain open for the rest of the day.
“The university must balance the importance of being open in order to fulfill its mission and responsibilities as an educational institution and the effects of bad weather."
Paul Cocke
The safety of campus is a top priority and Western staff use their best judgement, based on forecasts, to predict what the conditions surrounding campus will be like, Western’s Director of Communications Paul Cocke said in an email. “The university must balance the importance of being open in order to fulfill its mission and responsibilities as an educational institution and the effects of bad weather,” Cocke said. Junior Wyatt Johnson said he thought the university made the right call to remain open. “It didn’t start snowing until my lecture at 10 a.m. so it would be a little weird for them to cancel school mid-way through the day,” he said. “It can get a little slippery when you’re walking through Red Square and the Communication Facilities, but if you have good shoes, you should be fine.” Freshman Jana Obune said she thinks campus should have closed when the weather began picking up and the snow continued to fall. “I’m not surprised that they didn’t though, considering last time it happened,” Obune said.
