So, classes were cancelled at Cascadia last night. The administration made the decision to cancel everything that started at 5:00 pm or later, and my class was at six, so home I trundled at 4:00 pm (I generally get there way early to do work and stuff).
As I drove to meet Otis at Cafe Long on a wet and mostly rainy Lake City Way, I wondered about this snow day business. In addition to Cascadia, Bellevue CC, Shoreline CC, and North Seattle CC had all cancelled evening classes (I don't know about Central and South Seattle). I know this is supposed to be all about safety, and I know that the decision is based not just on the weather at the campus, but also on the conditions in the areas that students come from, but it still seems to me that we are often a bit hasty and premature in canceling classes.
As I drove home from campus, I realized that there were still plenty of people of people moving about, engaging in commerce and personal business; it wasn't like the city had shut down for the blizzard. There was snow, yes, but it wasn't "severe weather" as the NWS calls it. There didn't seem to a particular issue with roadways; I have driven in worse conditions on days that were just rainy. So why had classes been cancelled?
I recognize that some students in some outlying areas might have had a difficult time getting into campus, or might have been able to make it at all. There are some students for whom that is true regardless of the weather conditions at campus or even in the area generally; they live in remote or high places, and have to contend with travel issues regularly. Is the policy for them?
If the weather conditions are dicey and the campus is open, students can, of course, make a personal choice not to attend that day, and to make up the work or not as is their habit. Or are we pretending that all students show up all the time? I have had full attendance at about three class sessions this quarter from all my sections.
I have been hanging around higher ed institutions, and community colleges specifically, for eight years or so; I even used to be part of the team that decided whether to close Clark College for weather. It seems pretty clear to me that we close to soon and too frequently.
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6 comments:
I'm with you, Walaka. Having lived in super snowy Buffalo for 7 years--during which time the university closed ONCE and I was expected to get my butt to school otherwise, snow/ice or no--before moving to Seattle, I've never really understood snow closures in Seattle. The only time it's made *some* sense to me is when it's icy--what with all the hills and your average Seattleite not likely to have a set of chains or bag of salt in their trunk.
I used to live near the bottom of a hill in Redmond. The one time it snowed while I lived there, I remember watching people slide down the hill sideways, their car brakes and elbows in locked positions.
Another time I remember we had 2-3 inches and there were cars all over the freeways, the region had to shut down, period.
It isn't the amount of snow that matters here, it is the lack of large amounts of snow plowing equipment and a majority of drivers with little to no experience with driving in snow that makes it important to shut things down.......that or there are just some drama-queens in charge of the decision....or bean counters with liability fears....
Yah, I think we recognize the difference between "snow cities" and Seattle - the amount of road-clearing equipment and the relative experience of the driving population are important factors. It seems to me, though, that we used to say snow means hazardous driving means let's close down and that now we just say snow means let's close down without even looking at the affect.
Durr... "effect."
Good point. I add let's close because no one is going to show anyways or at least half of the students won't show and we have a faculty member whinging about how he MUST leave NOW no matter what(I am not naming names, yet this did happen at about 2:30).
Note- I tried to use the HTML code for italics, yet it didn't work. It kept telling me the tag wasn't closed- which it was......
Alright, this is what I meant to say: We used to close schools based on driving conditions. Now we close schools based on the conditions of the drivers.
I do agree that it is probably done too often, yet as Prez Bill said in his e-mail, historically when they close the school the snow stops, when they don't conditions worsen.
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