By Joe Vitale
Due to an impending snowstorm expected to be one of the largest in the history of New York City, Fordham has closed all campuses and cancelled all class from 1 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 26, through Tuesday, Jan. 27, according to a university-wide email sent at 10:45 a.m. on Monday.
“The University anticipates a late opening on Wednesday, Jan. 28.,” stated the email, which indicates that students are expected to attend classes that begin at 11:30 a.m. on Monday.
Other services throughout the school will be held off due to the blizzard which is expected to last until Tuesday and is projected to bring two feet of snow.
The last Ram Vans will leave the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses at 2 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 26, according to the email. They are expected to resume service on Wednesday, Jan 28.
Neighborhood shuttle service will not continue through the storm, nor will neighborhood subway service operating in the Rose Hill community on Monday or Tuesday nights, according to the email.
Residential dining facilities will be open on their normal schedules at both campuses and University Heath Services at Rose Hill will close at 4 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 26.
Fordham University Emergency Medical Service will be available at all hours at Rose Hill. Walsh Library will operate on its normal schedule.
Though the late January storm marks the first class cancellations of the spring semester, an abundance of class cancellations have resulted in altered semester schedules.
In 2014, for example, the university had weather-related cancellations that cost students two Wednesdays, one Monday, one Thursday and a half-day on a Tuesday. In response, the university cancelled reading days at the end of the semester.
In 2013, Hurricane Sandy wiped out a week of classes during the fall semester and forced a condensed schedule.
Even so, the blizzard anticipate for this week, officials say, poses a much greater threat to any storms of the past decade.
“This literally could be one of the top two or three largest storms in the history of this city,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference on Sunday regarding preparations for the storm. “My message to New Yorkers is to prepare for something worse than we have seen before.”
In New York City’s history, two of the largest storms arrived in 2006, when 26.9 inches of snow fell, and in 1947, when a blizzard brought a little more than 26 inches. Another storm in 1888 brought 21 inches of snow.
