As Boston cowers under blizzard after blizzard, Boston University students take to Twitter and Facebook to complain about the administration office’s lack of communication in terms of delays and cancellations – rightfully so. Thus far in 2011, Beantown has amassed more than 63 inches of snow combined. The people upstairs should have a firmer grasp on what to do when bad weather strikes.
On Jan. 27, a BU Emergency Alert email arrived in inboxes across campuses warning students that the Charles River Campus had a two-hour delay and would reopen class at 11 a.m. For some, the email arrived too late. Others were unsure as to whether their 11 o’clock classes would even proceed. On Feb. 1, another email was sent out announcing that the Charles River Campus would again be closed, but this time at five o’clock. This inspired another bout of confusion: what about those with class from 4 to 7 p.m.? What about classes that start at 3:30 p.m. and go until 5 p.m.?
Whoever is in charge of sending these emails and delivering these edicts probably thinks they’re being clear, but the entire university seems to be wallowing in frustration during these difficult times. Canceling class is a pressing issue and in today’s world, BU should have no problem connecting with its students. A simple text message would suffice. In fact, it’d probably be preferable considering Horde obviously isn’t timely.
Each school has its own way of dealing with weather problems, but considering BU’s location in the center of New England, the administration doesn’t seem up to par. It must be difficult to make the decision to shift more than 40,000 schedules, but being overly apprehensive also has the effect of being inconvenient. Since the infamous debacle last year in which a snow day was called only to have minimal weather at best, BU has been infuriatingly ambivalent.
Students can handle a day of traipsing through snow. They might gripe, their professors might tell a half hour story about how hard it was for them to travel down Commonwealth Avenue from their home in Maine, but at the end of the day they’ll survive. What sets that kind of day apart from a terrible one is not receiving necessary information. As snow continues to pound Boston this year, Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore and his counterparts should attempt to improve dissemination of that information. Doing so should minimize complaints and make for a less bitter winter.
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Um…
If campus opens at 11am, classes that begin at 11am happen.
If campus closes at 5pm, classes that end at 5pm happen.
Regarding the 4pm-7pm class, I guess it would be up to the professor to decide whether to hold 1 hr of class or to cancel altogether. Some professors would get annoyed if they lose a three-hour block of class when they could have salvaged at least an hour — but some professors might call the whole thing off, just in case.
If BU doesn’t have a centralized site or phone number for students to call, it should set one up. Aside from that, it’s hard to blame the administration for this one.