By Toma Lynn Smith
The unpredictable mini vacation last week led to cabin fever and some professors adjusting their schedules.
“The last time the university was closed for this long was 1994,” stated University of Louisville spokesman John Drees via e-mail. “We were closed for four days.”
In response to this year’s closing, Drees stated, “The administration decided that most of our students, faculty and staff were dealing with a crisis situation. Giving them extra time to get their situations in order, and giving our staff time to make campus safe, was the prudent thing to do.”
“Belknap campus is still dangerous with more downed limbs than we had after Hurricane Ike and more of them falling which potentially endangers anyone walking on campus,” Drees stated Thursday. “There are still lots of downed trees, downed electric lines, hundreds of thousands of people without power and serious icing problems on major streets and, particularly, on side streets,” he added.
In addition to frozen tree limbs, four buildings lost power at U of L including the Humana Gym and Jim Patterson Stadium.
Last semester there was some backlash of the response to the wind storm that occurred in September. “Due to high winds and flying debris, seek shelter in a safe location. If you are not on campus, stay away,” was the emergency message sent out via e-mail, and by cell phone text, to faculty, staff and students Sunday, Sept. 15, 2008.
However, school was held Monday, Sept. 16, 2008, although 300,000
homes in Louisville and surrounding areas were without power and had massive amounts of debris.
That Tuesday and Wednesday classes started and campus offices opened at 10 a.m. “As all of you know, there are no right decisions on weather calls; just as today’s opening inconvenienced some, tomorrow’s reduced schedule will also not be met with universal acclaim. So, I apologize for the inconvenience and we’ll manage as best we can,” stated U of L Provost Shirley Willihnganz by e-mail.
In a campus wide e-mail sent out Monday evening, Jan. 26, Willihnganz stated, “After reviewing our actions and policies following last year’s snows and this fall’s wind storm, we made several changes that will affect all of us.” The changes affected the delayed class policy.
Students/faculty respond
History major David Lowe slept in his car the first night of the winter storm.
Lowe said he turned the heat on for a while and turned it off before falling asleep. Then decided to stay with his friend the second night.
“It wasn’t that bad outside, then after the first night, I couldn’t take it anymore.”
Hunter Trego, a freshman geography major said, “I had to cross live wires on the ground and had to have someone come and pick me up. They brought me here and I stayed with a friend on campus,” He stayed at Threlkeld Hall. “Each night the phone went off (announcing school cancellations); you could hear yells all the way down the hallway. People were just so excited.”
Lowe and Trego watched movies to kill time. “I watched all four “Karate Kid” movies one night,” said Trego. Lowe watched trilogies including “Lord of the Rings, the Bourne trilogy, and “Back to the Future.”
Faculty member Dr. Tamara Yohannes days were not as entertaining. The English visiting professor now has to adjust her syllabi for her four classes. “My goal is to get everything in, we were supposed to get in, but not make it onerous for the students. We can’t do four days of work in one day.” “We have to stretch out the adjustment for a couple of weeks.”
“I don’t ever accept any handwritten papers and for this week only, I will accept handwritten papers (until everyone gets their computers back),” she said.
Being with U of L 14 years, she’s never had to deal with school being closed for this long. “Even during Ike, I had one class that missed a lot.” But, “They all have their own issues now.”
