UB Cancellation Policy

Students returning from Fall Recess earlier this week were greeted by a typical Buffalo characteristic: snow. And lots of it.

While the snow led to driving bans in surrounding counties, local school closings and hazardous driving conditions, we here at UB were asked to shoulder on and make our way to campus. Classes were not canceled, but neither were the parking lots plowed or the sidewalks salted. University policy on closing leaves it up to University Facilities to determine whether the campus can be made safe and accessible for students and faculty, and so it was judged on Monday, apparently. Driving bans in nearby locales are not factored in, with the exception of Erie County and the town of Amherst.

The reasons for such an irresponsible policy have roots in the university not wanting to incur the costs of class cancellations while still having to pay professors. Presently, the option of canceling classes is left to individual professors' preferences. That in itself is not unacceptable, but it creates difficulties for the students because the typical method of notification is a note taped to the classroom door - and if the student has already driven to campus, the cancellation is pointless. This is inconsiderate as well as ineffective; the university needs to provide professors with a means of notifying students quickly and easily of cancellations. A Web site where teachers could list cancellations would be appropriate, as would a policy requiring professors to e-mail students with the notice. This is only fair to the students who must either drive on the roads that are often in poor condition, or must walk through the cold to make it to a class that will not even take place.

Not all teachers cancel class, obviously, and students still have to come to campus. For that reason alone - and because the university says that it is able to make buildings and lots accessible to the community - parking lots, sidewalks and roadways must be kept clear of snow and free of ice. The lack of plowing, shoveling and salting in the parking lots, streets, and sidewalks on campus is a disgrace. Automobile accidents happen in parking lots more frequently than on any roadway, and this proportion will only get worse if the parking lots are not plowed. UB has been awful in plowing its parking lots, as an entire workweek has gone by since the Thanksgiving weekend storm and some lots on campus remain packed with snow and slush.

Adding to this the fact that the walkways on campus have been mistaken for the slopes of Kissing Bridge of late, the problem becomes frightfully apparent. It seems those who are in charge of the maintenance of UB's facilities are either unable or unwilling to provide the most basic of services to students and faculty. Buffalo is famous for snow, and if a small number of people cannot be hired to shovel sidewalks and building entranceways, then something drastic needs to be done.

Saving money by not plowing or saving money by not closing the university are policies that do not have anyone's best interests at heart. Winter policy at UB must be altered so that practical solutions are taken into account when dealing with the weather. First, roadways and walkways need to be shoveled or plowed for safety. Second, if the weather is so bad that plowing cannot help and the surrounding areas have issued warnings or bans on driving, the university should not be so stubborn as to stay open at the risk of its faculty and students. Finally, if the decision is to be given to professors on whether to hold class, a way for them to notify students of changes without making them walk or drive all the way to campus must be devised.