Despite the snow, students and professors are expected to plow through the rest of the semester as scheduled.
Canceling classes should not be looked at as a “way to erase that day,” MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said during Tuesday’s Executive Committee of Academic Council meeting.
Students and faculty are responsible for working to make up any classes or assignments missed on Wednesday, Provost Kim Wilcox said during the meeting.
“It’s each faculty member’s (responsibility) to be clear about what that means in terms of learning,” he said during the meeting.
The situation is similar to a professor canceling class for any other reason, Wilcox said.
“If a faculty member can’t make a class, the expectation is that the work goes on,” he said. “So every individual class will handle this in a different way.”
One upside to the snow cancellation is it came fairly early in the semester, giving faculty members plenty of time to adjust their course schedules for students, said Pamela Whitten, dean of the College of Communication Arts and Sciences.
Faculty members will be responsible for getting in touch with students about any adjustments to their course syllabi, she said.
“There’s a lot of flexibility in the semester left,” Whitten said. “Certainly timely communication with students is a priority for our college.”
Tom Wolff, associate dean of the College of Engineering and a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, said he sent a message to students Tuesday night asking them to leave the computer labs in the Engineering Building before the inclement weather began to hit.
“Based on the weather and my best judgment, I recommended they consider plans to work elsewhere,” he said.
“I didn’t want anybody caught in the building.”
Biosystems engineering junior Eric Werner received an e-mail Tuesday warning classes might be canceled.
He had an exam scheduled Friday that was moved to Monday, he said.
“I was kind of excited,” Werner said.
“But … instead of enjoying my weekend, I’ll probably be at the library.”
All coursework changes will be determined by individual instructors, Wolff said.
Although many classes might pick up the pace a little bit or post a day’s worth of notes online, the adjustments won’t be anything drastic, he said.
“The reality is that the fall and spring semesters have a different number of days anyway,” Wolff said. “There’s usually one semester where I end up with another day to work on something and another where I’m a day or two short.”
Apparel and textile design junior Hannah Reznich said besides classes moving a little faster, she’s not worried about missing a day of class.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
“We had a quiz canceled today, but it’s nothing we can’t take in 10 minutes (another time),” she said. “We have an extra day to study.”
On Wednesday, Werner planned “absolutely not” to study.
He took time to enjoy the break, he said.
“I’m about to order a pizza and sit on the couch and relax,” he said.
