Snow day sob stories abound

Sophomore Lara Appelbaum trudged from Pennsylvania Hall to class in Bellefield Hall with a… Sophomore Lara Appelbaum trudged from Pennsylvania Hall to class in Bellefield Hall with a sprained ankle through what she described as “puddles of slush and snow.”

Commuter student Vanessa Behrend left her house early to catch the bus to avoid any complications with the Port Authority’s delayed schedule.

“The roads were bad and the city was not taking care of any of it,” she said.

Many Pitt students endured similar situations Tuesday when Chancellor Mark Nordenberg decided that classes would continue as scheduled despite inches of snow and continued precipitation throughout the day. “We never get snow days,” Appelbaum said. “If the public schools are closed, why can’t we be?”

According to Pitt spokesman John Fedele, Nordenberg did not deem the weather conditions extreme enough to cancel classes because of the city’s awareness of the incoming storm.

“The bottom line is when it is February in northeast North America, it snows,” he said. “We knew about the storm, and it gave the city the chance to deal with it.”

Students, however, felt the city was not prepared for the storm.

“I live in South Oakland, and I like to drive when the weather gets bad because of the bus delays, but I can’t if the roads aren’t plowed,” said sophomore Maegan Bracken. “If the shuttles can’t be on time, how do they expect cars to drive on the roads?”

Carnegie Mellon University also remained open, but Duquesne University and Point Park University canceled classes after 2 and 3 p.m., respectively, because of the snow.

“We don’t usually have days off because of the weather,” said Virginia Frizzi, spokeswoman for Point Park University. “This was an unexpected occurrence.”

Fedele said Pitt considers the severity of the weather, the timing of the storm and the expected level of disruption it will cause before deciding to cancel classes.

“The real world doesn’t stop because it snows,” he said.

Appelbaum questioned the validity of the criteria used to deem the weather “extreme” and wondered if the chancellor knew how messy the situation was in Oakland.

“Did [Nordenberg] even come to the University yesterday?” she said.

Weather related cancellations are determined on a case-by-case basis between the chancellor and the emergency operation center, Fedele said.

“For the folks who grew up around here, it is not unusual to have a moderate snow storm like the one yesterday,” he said.

Despite students’ beliefs that the main routes to University buildings weren’t adequately salted or shoveled, Pitt’s Department of Facilities Management was cleaning the sidewalks across campus, Fedele said.

“When it is snowing continuously, they can’t be everywhere at once shoveling or laying down sand and salt,” he said. “They often will clean an area, move on to another and then go back if needed.”

Students also found the condition of city roads to be sub-par.

“It was really hard [to get to class] because it was icy and scary,” Appelbaum said. “I can’t walk right as it is, and I was worried that I was going to injure myself even more.”

But even in the face of such complaints, Pitt aims to treat its students like adults, Fedele said.

“I’m hearing a lot of people around the city complaining about the weather,” he said. “If we were talking about a group of little kids standing at a bus stop, that’s an entirely different story.”

Canceling individual classes because of weather concerns, however, is up to the discretion of the instructors. According to Pitt’s extreme weather policy, instructors who are unable to meet a scheduled class should contact their school or department to inform them that the class is canceled because of the instructor’s inability to arrive on campus.