Chances are you looked out your window last time it snowed and jumped to turn on the Ham Channel. To your dismay, you saw classes were not cancelled and you trudged though the snow to your dreaded 8 a.m.
“It was so bad! There was ice and snow all over the roads. What do those people want for a cancellation? A blizzard?” asked Beth Casciano ’06.
The decision of whether to cancel classes comes from many people in the departments of human resources, security and campus operations. They pass on their recommendations to Academic Vice President Orin Grossman, who has the final say.
Mark Guglielmoni, director of human resources, contacts Todd Pelazza, director of security, around 5 a.m. when snowy conditions develop.
They find out if campus operations will be able to plow and sand the walkways and roads of campus in time for classes to start. They also look on state websites and contact the state highway department for condition updates.
There is a need for a delay or cancellation when either campus operations does not think they will be able to clean the campus at the rate of the snowfall, or the state highway department decides highways and surrounding roads of Fairfield are too dangerous to drive.
“It’s a difficult decision to make, because you can always second guess yourself on what is going to happen,” said Guglielmoni, who is often on the road at 6 a.m. trying to determine conditions.
He said there are always tough calls, especially when the snow starts in the morning, instead of overnight. Campus operations often works around the clock making decisions. They use their best judgment, with safety in mind, to decide whether or not the campus will be safe enough for students to walk around.
“Even if classes are cancelled, certain activities always go on. There is a potential for someone to get hurt, but we try to lessen that potential the best we can. I’ve been here for three years and I have never heard of anyone getting seriously hurt,” said Guglielmoni.
The cafeteria, library, and RecPlex always stay open. Fairfield would never deprive its students of food, a good workout or study time-even on a snow day.
Students angrily wonder when all neighboring schools are cancelled why they still have to brave the cold and snow. Other schools’ decisions do not determine or influence Fairfield’s decision, which is made before or at the same time as other schools, like Sacred Heart University.
“It’s so frustrating when Sacred Heart is cancelled and we’re not. We’re so close,” said Andrea McCarthy ’06.
But Sacred Heart has more commuting students than Fairfield and therefore has to consider how many people will be traveling the icy roads to get to their classes. Most of Fairfield’s students live on campus, so the condition of the campus is usually the first concern.
The university also considers students’ safety over the faculty members’, because professors have the ability to cancel individual classes if they think it is too dangerous to drive from their homes.
“I usually get one person each storm who calls saying we’re idiots,” Guglielmoni laughed. “But I’ve also gotten calls like, ‘Thank God you didn’t cancel class, it was our review class before the exam.'”
Cleaning up the campus for these eager students is a hard process. Student cars often end up surrounded by mounds of snow, enclosed for days. Campus Operations never wants to trap cars, but sometimes they have no other option because they have to clear the roads. Students are generally very cooperative when they are asked not to park in specific lots or to move their cars for plowing.
“Part of it is just that we’re in New England. It’s expected,” said Guglielmoni.
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