Updated: Jan. 27, 2011, 4:25 p.m.
With 15 inches of snow overnight and more than 90 cancellations due to severe weather in the Philadelphia region, Temple administrators gave the green light for university operations to continue as regularly scheduled today.
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Anthony Wagner said one of the main deciding factors in not administering a cancellation or delay was that the storm, nicknamed “Thundersnow,” had ceased at 1 a.m., allowing ample time for city and university workers to clear the streets and sidewalks.
“These are always tough decisions,” Wagner said, adding that the decision was made during a 5 a.m. conference call among administrators. “We have 13,000 students that live on or around campus. We need to have enough people [on Main Campus] to keep it running.”
“I have to admit that I was disappointed the streets weren’t in better shape when I came in,” Wagner added.
“It’s been university policy that the university tries to open under virtually any circumstance because we do have a lot of students who are right here, and [maintaining class attendance] is obviously a part of keeping them progressing academically through the semester properly,” Wagner said.
While some professors opted to cancel classes on a per-circumstance basis, many students still attended classes – yet some begrudgingly so.
Malcolm Kenyatta, a senior communications major and founder of the student-activist group Fired Up, started an iPetition via Facebook early Thursday morning with a goal to garner 5,000 signatures by Friday. As of 4:30 p.m. Thursday, the petition had garnered more than 1,800 signatures.
“We can’t necessarily decide when school is canceled and when it’s not,” Kenyatta said. “But students should have a say. A lot of people might think [the petition] is us griping about not having a snow day, but it’s not. This is about safety.”
Robert Ferry, a sophomore business management major, said dealing with extreme weather is “all about being prepared.”
“I live in Center City and had class at 9:30 [a.m.], but I just have to jump on the subway and I’m [on Main Campus] – it wasn’t really a problem,” Ferry said.
Still, some, such as senior criminal justice and Spanish major Maria Cruz, said Main Campus’ slippery conditions were “treacherous.”
“As soon as I opened my door, I couldn’t even believe the amounts of snow piled up on the street,” said Cruz, who lives in University Village.
Wagner said administrators keep an eye on what decisions other local entities are making in terms of cancellations, in addition to keeping in contact with representatives from the City of Philadelphia, SEPTA and other local colleges and universities.
“When it’s all said and done, it’s a judgment call,” Wagner said. “We’ve gotten some concerns about the decision today, and that’s something we’ll take into consideration as we deal with similar circumstances in the future.”
Maria Zankey can be reached at mez@temple.edu.
“Judgement call”? Does the judgment to suspend the shuttle bus between Temple’s Ambler campus and Philadelphia campus, a service that MANY students utilize, not support the notion that perhaps cancelling class would be beneficial to both faculty and students who commute? Congratulations on the sloppy success of clearing walkways for the 5,000 dorm students that account for less than half of those students that live in Temple’s vicinity that have to walk through uncleared sidewalks. “A for effort” Temple!
Yea. I’m not sure how attentive these people were on their five am conference call. Despite the fact that I and almost everyone I know fell like twice today, or that cars were skidding off the completely uncleared roads or that it was a complete waste to even attend class because there was only about a 20 percent attendance…. good call…despite all that.
“Wagner said administrators keep an eye on what decisions other local entities are making in terms of cancellations, in addition to keeping in contact with representatives from the City of Philadelphia, SEPTA and other local colleges and universities.”
Ummmmmm so Philadelphia is in a state of emergency. Doesn’t that mean anything to the “brilliant” officials we have on Temple’s campus?
their judgement was not right on this one.
Obviously Wagner doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about. “Wagner said administrators keep an eye on what decisions other local entities are making in terms of cancellations, in addition to keeping in contact with representatives from the City of Philadelphia, SEPTA and other local colleges and universities,” obviously they don’t because Septa cancelled major buses that students utilize to get to school, not to talk about being under a State of Emergency. They obviously don’t recognize students who commute to campus. This is more than just maintaining good attendance, even though a lot of student DID NOT attend classes, it’s more than that. The only reason he has a job is because of the students, he needs to recognize that a school without students is nothing. Foolishness.
I’m happy to see that they thought about the safety of their employees first by suspending the shuttle bus but did they ever think that the students, who pay Temple, are already on main campus and need to come back to ambler campus to go home? It’s ludicrous to let students be stranded on main campus when the commute, where does Temple plan to store the students overnight? Perhaps, camp out at the 24/7 Tech center? Next time, think it more thoroughly and plan out the consequences of these decisions you make. I can’t believe I’m paying tuition for a school that doesn’t care about safety but more about keeping the campus “running” and attendance records.
They should’ve closed. It was way to dangerous.
this whole debacle was piss poor. i must commend the professors who were understanding enough to cancel classes given the possible dangers and inconveniences such as limited to no transportation and dangerous travel involved for some. what really gets me is that most of the roads surrounding campus were either not cleared or poorly done and most of the city was shut down so why not take the hint? they need to do better.
My 11:00am class was canceled by my teacher, but I still had to attend my 3:30pm class. I fell down hard on the way to class almost bringing me to tears. My teacher ended up letting us out of class 40 minutes early because there was so little attendance. The streets and sidewalks were not cleared around the building my class was in nor the dorm I live in on campus. I am still hurt and expect to find terrible bruises in the days to come. Thank you Temple for keeping me safe…
I understand that they want us to get our money’s worth, get an education, etc., but this was just executed wrong. We are in the age of technology, if the administration is so concerned about us missing a day of class over the students’ and faculty’s safety, why don’t they just utilize online lesson plans/Blackboard more for days like these?
this is a complete joke. first of all, not only were the ambler shuttles canceled out of no where, but septa was completely not running buses today. it doesn’t matter to me if the underground buses and stuff are running duh! they are always going to run because it cannot rain or snow underground geniuses. what about the people like me who live in south philadelphia and commute to school everyday. like seriously, their worried about the kids who live on campus when they roll out of bed and go to class. meanwhile, i live 13 blocks from my subway and considering that septa buses were not running, i could not get to school today… but do professors and temple care about that? obviously not. i’m the only one who is going to care about this when i get deducted a grade letter in my class for missing a day. thanks city of philadelphia & temple….
This was absolutely ridiculous. The suburbs got even more snow than the city and plow trucks did not come till this afternoon. How are you suppose to get there if you can’t even get out of your driveway and you commute? This was the worst decision they have made!
It was still snowing when I was outside at 1 A.M. helping my fiance dig out the driveway so he could park when he got home from work. There was over a foot of snow at the bottom of my steps and it took us over 2 hours to dig a path down the driveway for the car. How can it possibly be feasible to have classes when there’s over a foot of snow on the ground? TU Alert should have sent messages at 3 A.M. telling us to start digging out because the school was operating according to schedule. Not to mention that SEPTA’s Regional Rail was running with up to 30 minute delays and all buses around campus were not running, how were any commuters supposed to get to class?
I reside near the subway station so getting to class was not impossible for me. However, it was sure a hiking trip walking to the subway and walking to my class at CHP campus. The sidewalks were being cleared out by 8am, but Broad Street was a huge mess along Temple Hospital. I feel bad for my classmates who could not get into class and I feel that it was unfair for them. There was only half of us in the class and most of the students were late. Also, despite the announcement that “Temple is open and operating at normal schedule Thursday,” no computer labs where availabe at 8am. The medical library and compute lab, which was supposed to be open 24/7, was still closed. There should not be any reason for the library being closed because it is unfair for the students who came in despite weather conditions. It was really unfair.
This article does nothing but justify the fact that there were classes today. The students interviewed barely got their thoughts mentioned. As someone who lives around main campus, but not on main campus or nearly as close as university village, it was very difficult for me to get to my classes today. Students have nowhere to walk but the slippery streets on side roads, and the campus wasn’t much better. When i return to my house at 8pm tonight, the conditions will not have improved, but will have worsened due to icing over. If temple university can cancel 8am classes on the FIRST DAY OF SECOND SEMESTER for TWO INCHES OF SNOW, why couldn’t they today when the conditions were so much worse? I feel that my safety was disregarded,and that the city of Philadelphia should not be blamed for the screw up temple administrators made when they decided to continue with the day as usual. Wagner, when you were inconvenienced this morning by the snowy roads, did you think of the thousands of students that don’t live on campus who have to travel dangerously through that as well? Probably not.
It seems that Temple cares more about attendance than the safety of its commuter students (or even any students). Most of us depend on the bus or car to get to college. But there was so much snow, the cars kept getting stuck and could not even move. It was so dangerous out there! Not to mention the fact that all the buses but one were not running this morning in my area. How do they expect us to get to Temple? Fly?! Perhaps they should get some private jets for the Temple students every time they decide not to cancel classes on such terrible snow days.
Temple is also a very big commuter school, and many students travel to get to their classes. With public transportation not running in areas where commuters like myself would need to get, it was made almost impossible to get to class. I ended up driving, not being able to find parking due to nothing being paved. And walking in snow as if it was never paved. I was disappointed when arriving downtown that people were not trying to even rectify this issue. I’m not one to think class or school should be cancelled for a few inches of snow, but 15? I think Temple made a bad call..
this is the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen Temple do yet. Most of the Temple students are commuters, and personally I am a commuter that lives no where near a subway station, one of the few ways possible to take in order to actually get to Temple. And leaving it up to the Professors to cancel select classes is ridiculous! I was forced to skip all of my classes today because NONE of them were cancelled. If Wagner is focusing on making sure students progress academically, then he FAILED. I missed a whole day’s worth of work and instead of being able to make it up, i can’t because Temple was technically open. As of 6:20 pm, the roads in my neighborhood have yet to be cleared, but i guess i should just shovel the roads to get to Temple, because it’s not looking as if Temple actually cares about its students.
Wagner, Wagner, Wagner… an absolutely TERRIBLE call. And to think you said, “I have to admit that I was disappointed the streets weren’t in better shape when I came in” and you STILL did not make the decision to cancel classes… unbelievable. Maybe your chauffeur has a SUV, but most of us don’t. Stop being inconsiderate of a primarily commuter university.
When I checked my phone/email this morning and saw that Temple was open, I actually laughed. I live in the suburbs and have a 45 minute commute every day. I then checked Septa and saw that they shut down their buses, and canceled a lot of the trains. The ones that weren’t canceled were on a 30 minute to an hour delay! I had four classes, a quiz and a presentation today and only one class was canceled. After waiting at the train station in the freezing cold for a train that was eventually canceled and another that ran 40 minutes late, I left. I stood there for over an hour and would’ve missed my first two classes by the time I got there anyway. I heard from one friend who did make it onto a train that she was then abandoned at Jenkintown station because they had to turn the train into an Express (therefor not stopping at Temple). She ended up turning around and going home too. I was so embarrassed for Temple after hearing my friends who live there talking about the poor conditions. I’m very upset that I missed a quiz today, which I can’t retake, because of Temple’s abysmal planning.
It’s completely ridiculous that they were open, I honestly have no idea what they were thinking.
Anthony Wagner needs to be more conscious of how poorly trained his workers are when it comes to removing snow. I have never ever seen a worse job done by a staff in clearing snow. Maybe they aren’t aware that you have to get to the snow before 10 a.m. Yes, the storm stopped at 1 a.m, so why wouldn’t workers be clearing snow off sidewalks and streets starting at 5 or 6 a.m. Very poor decision on Wagners part..
When walking outside of my house and off to Temple’s campus I not only slipped 3 times but most likely through out my back..again. Thanks Temple for caring-not!I’m pretty sure Mr. Wagner must live on campus because if he did not he would realize how bad the street conditions were. Temple needs to take into consideration its commuters and off campus students whom make up a large percentage of the students.
Why is this the treasurer’s call? Who is in charge of safety?
Yeah… that’s some judgement call… Even after shoveling the driveway my street wasn’t plowed until after I had to leave to catch a train for my first class. Preposterous decision.
I don’t understand the reasoning behind putting the focus on the minority of students that live on campus and how they were going to get their dose of education for the day when half of the student body can barely make it to school safely. Temple: some people actually commute to school from outside Philadelphia city limits.
As one of the MANY commuters to Temple University it is RIDICULOUS that the administrators believed that ANYONE would go to work clearing the snow at 1 a.m. Of course the conditions were bad this morning! They were bad EVERYWHERE! After struggling for 2 hours to get my car out of the driveway, I finally gave up and left my car as is. Even if I wanted to take public transportation, it wasn’t running from where I commute. Seems to me that even students who LIVE ON CAMPUS couldn’t make it to satellite campuses because TEMPLE UNIVERSITY SHUTTLES weren’t running either! If Septa and Temple shuttles aren’t running, how else are they expecting people to make it in? It is careless on the parts of this administration. Ok maybe 13,000 students do live on campus, but how many professors do too? I am willing to bet not even a fraction of the amount! Professors along with commuting students have to kill themselves to make it to school for ONE DAY of classes? The time and material can easily be made up. Where are the guidelines for school closing during severe weather conditions? I’d really like to see that…
I wonder if Mr Wagner and his administrators ever use the online camera installed all around campus when they are “keeping an eye” on the situation. Consider this web site when you are making your “judgement call” http://www.temple.edu/webcams/paleycam/index.html.
Most Temple students don’t understand that it’s NOT up to Temple whether they can close due to weather conditions. Since Temple is heavily state-subsidized, the STATE gives us the minimum requirement of 42.3 hours (give or take a decimal or so) of class time to make those credentials valid. Unfortunately, the Temple schedule is 42 hours on the dot. Temple does not have the leeway to cancel class, especially when it’s so early in the snow season, and we’re supposed to get much more in weeks to come. Professors are allowed to cancel their classes, make it not a requirement, and post class-captures so that student’s can keep up to pace; that is up to their discretion. Blaming the University for this is completely naive. Either battle it out in the snow (where I bet a hand full of students had more than one class cancellation anyway, 3/3 of mine were optional/cancelled), or you can pay tuition for a full private university such as La Salle or St. Joes. Your pick. I’ll take 14k and a day or two in the snow over 45k and a day off any day.
How can Wagner actually say that he based part of his decision on the decisions other schools in the area made? LaSalle was closed ALL Day.
I missed all classes, and like some of you my professors are strict on attendance too.
AND that’s not even to mention that yesterdays day classes weren’t delayed.
Horrible.
Obviously Temple administration did not base their decision on local officials because the city was in a state of emergency. Just because you clear off the campus does not mean that the thousands of students and employees that live off-campus will be able to make it there safely. I think that is what they are forgetting. This is a school with thousands of commuters. We shouldnt have to worry about an absence when major arteries like Broad Street arent even clear… So it’s good to know Temple can clear their sidewalks. Unfortunately, the problem most of us faced today wasn’t campus conditions, it was getting to campus.
@Matt
Your wrong. WCU has been cancelled the last three days. State school.
well, the reason why people are still attending the classes because attention is mendatory even under the severe weather!!!!!!! ITS INSENSE!!!!!!! its about safey! i am sure everyone will try to get to campus when their grades is going down a letter for absence. AND it is not good for student or faculty. there are still part of the student and teacher doesnt live around campus. if the weather and the road are so bad, and the school is forcing the student to go to school, if there is anything accident happened, the school doesnt has any responsibility. but in fact, the school is the reason why students n teacher are digging out their car and drive in the dangerous snow, or try to get to some subway or whatever. student doesnt have a choice.i cant just skip class because i think it is too dangerous to drive 20 miles to school and back. if i skip, it is my fault but i am just trying to be safed,i will still be count as an excused absent or something. it is just ridiculous that the school is still OPEN! even mcdonald is close
@Josh
They have many more hours to ‘play with’ to make credits valid.
I slid down the steps of 1940 this morning because the steps had not been shoveled yet this morning at 8:00. When was all the clearing happening? when I woke up there was a team of maybe 6 people struggling to shovel out store fronts. not dorm walk ways. Many people got hurt today walking to class. Maybe they should factor that into their decision next time they decide to open school with 15 feet of snow on the ground.
@Matt
Why do they get more hours to “play with”. They are a PA State school.
@Josh
That I can not answer, but I do know they have different criteria for their credits school to school as deemed by the state.
Wagner was disappointed when he came in this morning?? yea thats why before you made your oh so smart judgement call somebody should have checked out the surrounding ares. Temple is worried about keeping its rankings up and cares nothing about its students. You can suspend temple transportation because It’s not safe but you can’t cancel classes? Administration seriously needs to re-prioritize ASAP! Temple University put all of its students and staff in harms way today and every student who missed a quiz or homework needs to be excused. Period.
This was not a judgment call. Temple only used to amount of students living on campus to develop their decision. What about the thousands of students that commute. I couldn’t even make it to class this morning because the bus wasn’t running. So now I get penalized because of Temple’s stupidity SMART MOVE TEMPLE REALLY SMART NOT!
Whether Temple is a heavily state-subsidized school or not, they had a decision to make today and it was POOR. They put people in danger. Thats a fact. A lot of teachers actually did NOT cancel class and many students had to either get here or miss quizzes and homework. I’m sure the state will understand that 15 inches and a State of Emergency warning would pose an issue for the students and staff.
Guess what you turds? THIS IS EFFING COLLEGE! You don’t get picked up by a bus anymore and you live a WHOPPING 10 minutes from your destination, and that’s by foot! Wake up and grow some responsibility…wait until you get a job someday (if you are lucky), where absolutely NO ONE WILL GIVE A FLYING FARK about a snowstorm, small or large. You are expected to show up for your duties just as you were required to today. Deal with it, it’s called being an adult; Snow days are OVER.
@Drexel,
You couldn’t be any more wrong.
Hey Temple, Newsflash! There is an Ambler campus too where you decided to close the dorms at!!! Therefore, Mr. Wagner not everyone “lives right here.” Come take a look at the Ambler student lot next time it snows. Top notch stuff, really. Same thing for the walkways after 10:10 classes are over. Think about just closing Ambler/Ft. Washingotn next time maybe. And the Temple shuttle bus can’t drive in this but students can? Hmmm…maybe I need to finish up my last semester here before I can understand that one.
Typical Drexel douche… Doesn’t understand the way North Philly works. Just because your mom can walk you to Drexel’s campus 10 minutes away doesn’t mean we all live 10 minutes away from Temple.
I am a professor who cancelled class today.
The idea was to put the burden on the professors at the school to cancel class and NOT the administration. I think this is completely unfair considering the policies and repercussions imposed by the school for cancelling class. Many of my colleagues were unable to make it to school this morning and early afternoon. I cancelled my class today because I thought it was insanity to make the students travel, even though my class was in the late afternoon. If the university altered the policy so that it was fine for professors to cancel class in inclement weather (a policy that would allow the school to remain open and the professors to make judgement calls), this micromanagement would ultimately work. Still, I think this move makes the administration look heartless and out of touch. Seriously, I can see if they cancelled class and resumed a normal schedule at like… 1 PM. But those poor folks trying to go to an 8 AM class this morning! That was unacceptable, in my mind.
Also, having the Ambler Shuttle suspended is saying: it’s NOT okay for our Temple bus drivers but it IS okay for students to drive. What kind of message is that?!
I live a mile and a half from Main Campus. My boyfriend spent an hour shoveling out his car to get to school this morning, and then we drove to class. This was probably one of the most dangerous drives I’ve ever experienced. And when we parked my boyfriend’s car it got stuck in the snow. So we then went around asking security guards and janitors for a shovel, and they wouldn’t help us. So we “borrowed” recycling trash bins from the school and proceeded to dig out the car with those. It took digging out the car plus me and a friend pushing the car to get it out. Also my other roommate’s car got stuck in the snow too! Needless to say the driving conditions were completely unsafe, and I feel for everyone who had to commute today.
You can’t say they “allow[ed] ample time for city and university workers to clear the streets and sidewalks” when they did no such thing
I live 2 blocks away from campus, and it was STILL so difficult to walk to class. None of the sidewalks were shoveled, so I, as well as other students, were forced to walk in the street. Not a big deal…except the STREETS weren’t plowed either! By the time I got to campus for my 9.30am class, union workers had literally just started clearing the snow. There were narrow, if any, paths from building to building, most of them a sheet of ice from students walking and packing the snow. If the snow stopped at 1am, why wouldn’t the clean-up begin sooner than 9am??? Today was a HUGE inconvenience and liability for Temple and its students. It was a bad call to hold classes. I understand the academic hours that Temple has to fulfill as a university, but really, not even a delay to give workers time to clear paths??? Thanks, Temple.
I don’t live on campus, and have to take a train to get to school. I depend on either being driven to the station or taking the bus, both of which were not an option today. I couldn’t see the steps outside of our home, there was so much snow and my family and I literally could not leave the house, let alone our street. I had to miss two classes because Temple saw it fit to keep “Attendance Records” up.
Bad call, Temple.
I am totally supporting the petition. I live at YoNo student apartments which is right on broad street and has shuttles to campus. The shuttles were canceled and for most of the students living here, the shuttle is the only way to get to campus (Unless you want to walk to Olney and get mugged). Mr. Wagner, are you saying that I should get to class at the risk of getting mugged?
How do you expect someone with 18 inches of snow on the ground and the streets not plowed till after 12 in the afternoon to get when they drive and have an hour commute? I couldn’t even get out of my driveway!!! A 4wd truck couldn’t even get up my street! This is so ridiculous definitely not looking out for the safety of your commuters when Temple is a commuter school!
Seriously? Contact with SEPTA and the city of Philadelphia? Does every bus being cancelled count as being in contact? Or possibly trains running on extremely long delays and even being cancelled? Good to know our wonderful administrators care about the well being of students who have to commute in order to receive a college education. Thank you, Mr. Wagner for your wonderful consideration making a judgement call at 5 in the morning when every street was still covered in more than a foot of snow. I’d also like to know what “around the campus” means because I can for one say that “around the campus” wasn’t taken care of at all.
Is Mr. Wagner even reading this? If you are, I’d really like to hear what you have to say about the students’ reaction to your decision. Maybe address some of our comments?
…at the end of the day Temple has to consider those who live “around campus” as well as those who commute…its funny how many things Temple brags about…Diversity, Commuter friendly, technology…that they just done keep up once you get here…at the end of the day…there are no buses running where I love, the streets and my parking lot arent plowed and i dont believe i should be punished for decisions made without my control…i wonder if theyre paying medical bills for those who might have fell or had accidents trying to get to their overpriced education…i think not…
@ Kevin from Yono
I got to Temple on time today from there. The Septa C bus comes by right across the street, you don’t need to rely on the shuttle. It’s only two bucks.
I was really upset to find out that we had school from receiving 14.9 inches of snow. When I left for my 8AM class, everything was ice, and it seemed like the maintenance crew had just gone out to start shoveling; notice, no snow plows were used. Also, SEPTA was not running, and I thought to have classes was very unfair to those who travel to Temple, via bus or trolley.
It’s winter. Sometimes it snows. Deal with it.
Wednesday I was “supposed” to get to campus by 8:50 am, instead I got there at 10:05 am which then made me late for class since I had to walk through the sleet/snow. Then, Temple left me stranded down at Main and I had to take Septa since they decided to cancel bus shuttle service back and forth between Main and Ambler. Then I’m told to wait at Ambler and an Ambler van will get me from the train station and take me to my car on Ambler campus. NEVER HAPPENED! I waited for over an hour, 4 trains came in after mine & students called their parents or others to come get them. I had no one to call and started walking toward campus thinking that I would flag a van down when I saw them. NEVER HAPPENED! I was completely soaked (as were my books) and then Temple chose to remain open on Thursday but with no service back and forth. How the hell did they think I was getting down there, especially with no parking???
Temple better shape up and do something. And next time it takes over 2 hours to get to school, maybe you should cancel classes and give notice to students that shuttle service will be suspended by a certain time so that way, students can get on the buses and get back home instead of getting stranded!
If the concern is classes remaining open for students on campus, could they AT LEAST put up something to the effect of “Class is cancelled for students living in off-campus housing” ? Or say that class is optional, on a “Come to class at your own risk” type basis? I agree that conditions even on campus were awful yesterday, however, my block had not been touched by a plow or salt or anything, making it incredibly difficult to even get to Broad st.
grow up college kids this is the real world. When you will start working and it snows will you also cry about it because your company decided to open up?
Mr. Wagner talked about the many students who live on campus but didnt talk about the many students who had to communte. instead of making excuses he needs to admit that the decision was a wrong one!!!
John,
we dont pay to go to work but we pay to go here, and we also have the option to call out of work of there is no possible way for us to get there. Im pretty sure we all understand this is the real world but if the “real world” means every college student tripping on ice, which could then lead to campus being sued, and coming to a campus that is filled with puddles of water, etc then this is just unjust. I know that Temple is know for never closing but if they decided this then particular precautions should have been taken so at least the campus is completely clear. Its just unsafe.
Fuck you john
I would first like to say I was very disappointed when I saw that the University was open on schedule yesterday. I do not mind digging my car out out of the snow and I do not mind walking to public transportation. When road conditions are as poor as they were yesterday I DO mind driving on them, and obviously it is rather difficult to take public transportation that is not running. With this said how would one expect the commuters (the majority of the student/staff body) to safely make it to campus. Sure the night crew worked hard to keep campus relatively clear, but this does not help those that travel. If the city is in a state of emergency state funding is not taken away, so that should not have contributed to the decision to keep the university open.
It is also known that the snow removal budget of the state has been practically depleted further adding to the problem. It’s hard to imagine why there was a 2hr. delay today, and nothing yesterday. I appreciate the effort to try to make it up to us, but it’s too little too late. I have never had a problem with Temple’s decision regarding the snow until now. It was certainly wrong to put students in harms way as they did in yesterdays situation.
The worst is getting to school in the horrible conditions to find out that your teacher cancelled class without sending out an email!
Temple is the worst. So glad I’m not there anymore. I don’t think I’ve met anyone that actually likes the school after their first semester anyway. Also, after working for 25 hours from 10am Wednesday to 11am Thursday doing snow removal for the city, in my opinion there is absolutely no way Temple should’ve even considered being open. It’s a joke.
Temple really needs to reconsider having class when the majority of buses aren’t running. Even as a student who technically lives “on campus” (Parrish and girard) the side walks weren’t paved the streets weren’t plowed and it was extremely difficult and unsafe to travel. Seriously, we should not be the only school in Philadelphia that’s open.
Ya, I saw a student in a wheelchair just stranded at the subway exit. She could not get 10 feet beyond the elevator cause the sidewalks were not cleared. So, Temple takes her money, tells her to make it to class and does not provide access…..well done ‘Diverse University’