On the days where the Fort Lewis College campus gets hit with snow, the Physical Plant Services Snow Management Team evaluates multiple factors on campus to determine what they need to do to get campus ready for the new day.
“It start with the Physical Plant Services,” Lauren Savage, FLC media relations coordinator, said.
From the time Physical Plant starts to make their way around campus, their job is to make sure that campus can become safe and accessible for those who are commuting to campus, Steve Schwartz, Vice President of Finance and Administration, said.
On days where there has been a lot of overnight snow, the team is out around three or four in the morning.
The team is out first evaluating the campus roads as a whole and then internal routes, such as sidewalks and pathways, to see what needs to be done.
Once Physical Plant has gone through and looked over the campus, they then look to see how the main road conditions are and if it is even possible for the commuter students to get to campus, Schwartz said.
As they are going through the road check, they are also seeing how other schools and school districts are proceeding with going about their day, Schwartz said.
Usually the college will follow what the Durango 9-R has release for closing school but there are some cases where we don’t follow it, Schwartz said
The factors are discussed either the morning of or the night before, but the decision has to be made quickly, Savage said. .
Things like road conditions that are leading to campus and if campus will be accessible as a whole.
If campus does end up close for the day, there are still essential personnel that are expected to show up to work if the condition they are working with allow them too.
The essential personnel that are needed on campus when the school closes, are those people that are needed to keep the campus functionable, Schwartz said. They are people like custodians and physical plant and the food service provider of the college,
In the Skyhawk Alert and email that is sent out by Media Relation Coordinator, Lauren Savage, at the end of the email there sentence that calls the attention of the essential personnel.
The resident assistants and resident directors are not considered to be essential personnel because they are already on campus due to their living situations, Schwartz said.
“I’m not sure even I’m considered essential personnel,” Savage said.
When there is knowledge of a snow storm, the weather is watched to see what it is going to be doing when. Based off the evaluation of the snow storm, the team will then open the discussion to pushing the start of school back, possible cancellation in the middle of the school day, or cancellation of school as a whole.
“We want to make sure it is safe,” Schwartz said.
If there is a safe way to get both commuting faculty and students to campus, it will be considered more than just canceling the whole school day all together.
Some days the decision making process may be different than others.
There could be days where the campus will delay the start of classes so that the weather can clear up and more visibility can be had while getting to campus.
Other days, school may be proceeding as normal and then a storm rolls in and there is need to cut the school day short to ensure the safety of those who are coming to campus from off campus.
The snow days that we have been having have been nothing but the start of a myth that graduation will get pushed back this year, Peter McCormick, associate vice president of Academic Affaris, said.
Although miss multiple days of school isn’t good for the education of the students, the campus has taken into consideration that we are located in Colorado and that snow storms are highly likely during the winter months, McCormick said.
The college plans in advance and adds room into the schedule for snow days, McCormick said.
It is left up to the professor of the class on how they want to proceed with making up the missed classes due to the snow, he said.