This winter has been one of the worst the Bronx and Fordham community have seen in the last few years. This semester, the school has been shut down completely for two days, closed early on a Tuesday and opened at 6 p.m. on another.
With a winter storm projected to hit on Thursday Feb. 13, Fordham will be closed yet another day. But how does the University come to this decision? According to Christina McGrath, assistant vice president in the office of enrollment, it is a multi-step process through the Emergency Management Team chaired by John Carroll, associate vice president of Security.
“[Carroll] is constantly in communication with the New York City Emergency Management Office, run by the Mayor’s Office, and they’re keeping constant watch on the weather predictions,” McGrath said. “This is the office that determines what the city’s going to do regarding the buses, the subways, facilities, etc. So Fordham makes their decision, based on their latest decision, their latest forecast.”
The information is then brought to the team composed of many members of campus, such as Christopher Rodgers, dean of students, Marco Valera, vice president of facilities, as well as representatives from dining services, the Provost office, the President’s Office and others.
“Collectively, we make a decision,” McGrath said. “It’s a back and forth, but number one the safety of the students is foremost.”
Usually, McGrath says, that the team attempts to come to a conclusion around 6 p.m., but the official decision is often released later to allow for change in forecasts.
McGrath says that if a decision is made in advance the school utilizes its email service.
“Many people asked me ‘how come we didn’t get a text message this time?’” McGrath said.
That service is utilized primarily for immediate decisions, instead of those made well in advance. To come to that decision, the team weighs many factors, since although Fordham is a residential campus and a large student population can get to class, many faculty members cannot.
One of the main questions asked is: “What can facilities do to clean the campus and make it safe?” That is one of many determinants in shutting down the school.
McGrath is also in charge of dealing with the registrar numbers and informing the team how many students are affected by a change in schedule.
“We try to have the affect on the least amount of students, however the safety of students always comes first,” McGrath said.
So far this year, the Emergency Management Team has been attempting to be proactive and issue notification in a timely manner.
“Remember last year after Sandy we announced that we were opening and then there was some backlash and then we closed,” McGrath said. “I think there were concerns about the timing of the messages, they just weren’t clear. Now we’re a little more proactive, we try to make the decision as far in advance as we can with the weather conditions. There were complaints that we would sometimes make the decision at 6am and some people would already be on the road.”
McGrath says other offices are also consulted on the decision, such as dining services, regarding their staff and deliveries, which are affected by the weather.
“Their priority is always to open up the Marketplace,” McGrath said.
This why, McGrath says, some of the other venues do not open up or have limited service hours.
As for changes to the schedule, none have been announced as of yet, but discussions are happening between the deans and the Provost office.
“Last year, after Hurricane Sandy disrupted the semester, we worked closely with the Deans of FRCH, FCLC, and Gabelli School of Business, to come up with a plan that allowed for make-up classes during reading days and the first day of exam period,” Jonathan Crystal, associate vice president in the Provost office, said in an email.
McGrath believes one to two snow days do not really affect the schedule too much. Also, so far this year, the school
“Although we are concerned about the cancelled classes so far this semester, as far as I know, decisions have not yet been made about adjusting the schedule,” Crystal said.
As for Thursday, school will be closed, but a decision regarding night classes will be made official by noon on Thursday. Dining and fitness facilities will run on their normal schedules, but the Ram Van will not be operating.
Kelly Kultys is the editor-in-chief of The Fordham Ram. You can follow her on Twitter @kellykultys.
