Benazir Shahid, sophomore from Pakistan, takes advantage of last week’s inclement weather.
Representatives from the Student Government Association, Faculty Senate and Staff Congress met recently to create a new inclement weather schedule.
The new schedule proposed that all classes meeting before 9:30 a.m. will be canceled during inclement weather, and classes meeting after 9:30 a.m. will continue at the regularly scheduled time.
While the changes have not been officially confirmed by Interim President Tim Miller, the committee has proposed the new schedule, along with resolving communication issues and re-establishing how road conditions will be evaluated.
Vice President of Academic Affairs Jay Morgan said he believes the new schedule will sufficiently resolve any confusion and will be effectively communicated to students, faculty and staff.
“I think we’ve got a pretty good feel of what all three campus constituencies want, the way they would like to see communications unfold and some of the decision-making processes,” Morgan said. “While I can’t guarantee that everything in the future will be perfect, I think we’ve got some good changes that we have made.”
The committee also agreed closing campus for the day if classes are not able to meet until noon would be ideal in a situation of inclement weather.
A student walks on campus near a fallen tree in last week’s inclement weather.
Communication between the administration and students, faculty and staff was also discussed by the committee.
“We would send an all-campus email, post to the Murray State website, send a text if appropriate, contact Channel 6 and other news outlets and post to Facebook and Twitter,” Morgan said. “We will try to follow that order and at the bare minimum you will get an email.”
Commuter student Tiffany Pederson, junior from Chicago, said she believes the new schedule will help her stay safe during bad weather.
“I like this plan much more,” Pederson said. “It keeps it safe for those traveling with the roads cleaned up and it being warmer, but it doesn’t throw off the entire day or the rest of the schedules students have to follow with practices and jobs.”
Pederson, who lives 30 minutes away from campus, said the roads were so bad where she lives that she couldn’t get in or out. While she chose to stay with a friend in town during the inclement weather, she still had difficulties with the previous schedule.
“I was confused with it and ended up missing a class,” she said. “But my professors were all really understanding about it and helped me out.”
Taylor Grace Suiter, sophomore from Brentwood, Tenn., who lives on campus, said she believes the new plan is better because it does not allow for classes to overlap like the previous schedule.
“On the two hour delay schedule, some class times were not accounted for,” Suiter said. “My boyfriend, who is in graduate school, has classes that don’t match up to the schedule, so he didn’t know when to go to class.”
Suiter said she believes the previous schedule left many students and professors confused and delaying classes is not ideal.
Said Suiter: “I think if you make it a clean cut off time and then operate as usual on days where we have snow but can still go to school, that it’s better than pushing everything back.”
Story by Mary Bradley, Staff writer