If Pennsylvanian officials declare a state of emergency, Pitt staff members will not be… If Pennsylvanian officials declare a state of emergency, Pitt staff members will not be required to use personal or vacation days for their absence.

This is according to a university memo posted on Nov. 7, 2002.

However, the recent President’s Day snow day forced many of Pitt’s employees who were not able to make it into work to use one of their coveted vacation days.

Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs Robert Hill said the reasoning behind the decision to require mandatory staff to report to work despite class cancellations was based on the distinction made by local media reports that “a state of disaster emergency is not as profound as a state of emergency.”

But according to a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvanian Emergency Maintenance Agency, state of emergency is not an actual classification, and a state of disaster emergency is the only type of disaster that a governor can declare in Pennsylvania.

In response to this observation Hill would not comment on term misusage, but he said “there is no one who can claim that the Commonwealth ordered all motorists off the road.”

Barb Mathews, a nurse at Pitt’s Student Health Service, explained that she was under the impression that KDKA announced at 8 a.m. Monday that the area was under a state of emergency and that all motorists were strongly encouraged to avoid being on the roadways.

Mathews said that she called her legislator and was told that there is no difference between a state of emergency and a disaster emergency. She was angered by the fact that Pitt expected its employees to brave the poor road conditions.

“Whether it’s a disaster or state of emergency you are going to create a disaster,” Mathews said.

Mathews lives between two hills and said there was no way, with the snow, that she would be able to get her car to drive up the hill. In fact, her garage was blocked by a car stuck in the snow whose driver had attempted to make it up the hill.

She explained, “The vacation day doesn’t have me as upset – when you write policy, you abide by it.”

Sodexho dinning service employees who were unable to get to work were not forced to use personal days said Frank Caruso, the senior operating manager.

Of Sodexho’s total staff, only half were able to come to work, and as a result the company was forced to close down some facilities, such as Eddies’ cafeteria.

Caruso explained that those who were able to come in were rewarded with stars as part of an incentives program, which allows employees to buy gifts with the number of stars they receive.

Mathews agrees that Pitt employees who came to work despite the snow should also receive some kind of compensation and the staff that could not make it should not be penalized.