Should campus be closed due to the weather? That is the question asked by the team at UW that supervises extreme weather closures, led by associate vice-president, communications Nick Manning. With Waterloo’s proximity to lake effect snowfall (and not to mention the ever-growing impacts of climate change) it’s only natural that extreme weather would become an important part of university operations in the frigid winter months.
In order to ensure that the campus community isn’t caught by surprise, Manning says that alongside his communications team, he is “always scanning” the forecast for potential weather threats. In the event of significant snowfall (or other extreme weather conditions), Manning’s team connects with a wider group of people across campus to begin drafting potential plans. This group includes campus police, as well as the plant operations and grounds teams of each of UW’s campuses.
“If for example [there’s been] heavy snow or an ice storm that happens overnight, we get together by 5 a.m. to review the information that we’ve been building up in anticipation around the forecast,” Manning said of the process. This period of time is crucial, as the university aims to inform community members by 6 a.m. about whether campuses are open or closed for the day. Considerations taken into account are the amount of snowfall and ice (including that which is yet to come), as well as the capability of UW’s resources to deal with the expected impacts. Once this information has been compiled, Manning’s team meets with the Provost, who would ultimately make a judgement call about whether to close campus. But Manning says that by this point, “often that will be an obvious decision to make.”
While campus weather closures are often referred to simply as “snow days,” Manning noted that snow is not necessarily the most dangerous kind of weather: “We’re probably as attuned if not more attuned to the risk of ice, which often has much more significant consequences.” Severe cold would be another factor, as well as extreme heat (although Manning notes that in his 10 years, he hasn’t faced a scenario where that has been an issue). These conditions pose a threat because they are harder to address immediately, whereas snowfall on campus can sometimes be dealt with more easily by plant operations. “We’re not sensitive to only small amounts of snow because we have great systems and processes in place to remove that stuff and to keep the campuses safe throughout the working day,” Manning explained.
While it might seem rare that campus shuts down due to weather, Manning was clear that it does occur when the situation calls for a closure: “Everyone knows and likes to laugh about the fact that UW never closes, and so that’s kind of the apocryphal joke … but of course that’s not true. We have closed on a number of instances over the last ten years.” Looking back on the past decade, though, Manning conceded: “There have been some times where a judgement gets made about ‘can we operate the campus safely?’ And I certainly can think of a couple times in the distant past now where I wish an alternative decision [had] been made.”
Looking at more recent years, Manning noted the pandemic being one factor that has influenced closure decisions, as the university didn’t have the same access to resources for clearing campus. In these cases, Manning said that closing was the “sensible and obvious decision.” These kinds of decisions become much more complicated depending on where they fall in the semester, however. Due to the tightly-scheduled, year-round nature of UW’s academic programming, one day of closures can have a big impact. Exam season poses particular difficulty to scheduling, as a campus closure would force any exams from that day to be postponed. “We don’t want to have a snow day that knocks us into, say, a weekend exam,” Manning added. And since so many students make plans to travel home after final exams, a snow day could pose much more complicated (and costly) threats during finals season. For Manning, this part of the equation is important to consider as well: “We’ve put the student experience in mind as well to say, ‘what is the consequence of this?’”
As for communicating decisions about weather closures, the university relies on channels like social media to alert the wider community. Manning explained that if the weather forecasts look uncertain, a post will usually be made advising folks to keep an eye on UW’s social channels for a decision before 6 a.m. While on occasion an announcement might be made later than that, Manning expressed that his team tries to stick to the 6 a.m. deadline as they are “mindful” of both students and employees that regularly commute from further distances. He also mentioned the role that the Regroup Mobile app, UW’s new emergency communications system, will play in communicating closures: “hopefully one of the benefits of that new emergency system is that we can use it for this type of thing and get [closure information] in people’s hands as early as possible.”
For more information on weather closures at UW, visit the university’s “weather closing guidelines” online.
