Heavy winter weather pushed Oakland University to cancel all but essential operations from Jan. 21 to 23, culminating a decision-making process that encompasses campus with coordination.
“Typically, [canceling classes] occurs when the groundskeeping crew and surrounding municipalities are unable to keep up with clearing the snow and ice,” the Facilities Management team wrote on their severe weather page. “However, the university’s goal is to remain open whenever possible.”
A weather station installed at the Facilities Management Building monitors temperatures, wind direction and speed, providing warnings and forecasts that a weather team uses to make recommendations to OU’s administration.
The Weather Team is made up of the Chief of Police, the Associate Vice President for Facilities Management, the Director of Facility Services and the Vice President of Communications and Marketing.
“Our job is to monitor the weather, kind of watch for approaching winter weather, winter storms and if we think it’s going to have an impact on the operations for Oakland University, our job is to put together a recommendation,” Chief of Police at OU, Mark Gordon said. “We send that forward to specific people at the university administration level above us.”
Meanwhile, Facilities Management prioritizes the removal of snow and ice from major campus roads, accessible ramps, entrances and exits, stairways and major walkways. Low-traffic buildings, parking decks and dorms are a second priority.
“A snow emergency may be declared when 3 or more inches of snow have fallen or are forecast to fall on campus, as reported by the National Weather Service and/or other law enforcement weather resources,” The OU Police Department (OUPD) wrote in their snow emergencies webpage.
Factors like the amount and rate of snowfall are tricky to time, Gordon explained, as they also have to know how much time it will take to clear sidewalks and parking lots. Based on this information, the weather team can make three recommendations, no changes to university operations, a delayed start or campus closure.
“When we recommend a delayed start, which means 10 a.m. or noon — that’s our two choices — we give our grounds people more time to actually clear the lots and the sidewalks before we start our business day,” Gordon said. “We can cancel evening classes, but the university remains open. That’s another option, which means staff and faculty are still required to be at their offices, but there are no classes.”
The emergency closure does not require staff to report for work and also cancels all classes. All university offices are closed and operations halt after the cancellation is made public by the decision-making team, via the Communications and Marketing Department and OUPD Emergency Alerts.
“Generally speaking, they usually will accept our recommendations,” Gordon said. “Sometimes they will change it a little bit, we may say ‘Let’s just cancel classes,’ and they’ll say ‘No, let’s just shut the whole university down,’ or vice versa.”
Unexpected weather changes are also accounted for with early release procedures, snow emergency parking lot areas and containers of ice melt at the entrances of most campus buildings.
“It’s tricky to get a time, and there’s a lot that’s taken into consideration, but first and foremost is the safety of our campus community, which includes students, faculty and staff,” Gordon said. “So we always keep that as the first consideration, you know, to make sure that we are as safe as we possibly can for everyone.”
