UB would cancel all classes — regardless of class format — in the event of a snow day, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Graham Hammill announced in a memo last week.
Class materials may still be provided to students, including pre-recorded lectures, so long as that material is provided asynchronously. Hammill’s announcement covers all class formats, including in-person, remote and hybrid courses.
Online classes will also be canceled due to potential power and internet outages, but material has been provided for teaching staff to maintain instructional continuity should the need arise, UB officials say.
This news comes after some faculty members were concerned that UB’s plans for inclement weather weren’t clear.
“A lot of people raised concerns about this last semester,” Mitchell Mockerman, a graduate teaching assistant in the Department of History, said. “It seems like a good, fair thing to do.”
According to UB’s Adverse Weather Operations Policy, UB’s Emergency Planning Oversight Committee is responsible for making recommendations based on “information issued by the National Weather Service Buffalo Office, current and expected campus conditions and all scheduled classes, events and activities.”
With input from the Emergency Planning Oversight Committee, the policy states that “the president or designee may make a decision to change scheduled operations resulting in class cancellations, class delays, an early departure or a closing.”
However, the policy also states “only the governor can officially declare that the University at Buffalo is closed or direct early departure.”
Cancellations or delays will be announced with “sufficient time to notify the campus community” via UB Alert, campus email, and the UB homepage, emergency page, MyUB and UBNow, according to the policy.
Cancellations and delays will be made before 5:30 a.m. for daytime classes and events and before 3 p.m. for classes and events scheduled for after 5 p.m.
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