Since the 1960s, MSU has had a total of six snow days.
University spokesman Jason Cody is one of the many people involved in deciding whether or not to have a snow day.
Cody said it’s always a case-by-case basis when it comes to canceling classes. People from various groups — such as MSU police and the University Physician’s Office — will get together and take a look at the current conditions and forecasts. Then they compare those to the campus’ capabilities to respond to such weather. Based on that, they decide whether or not to have a snow day, though Cody said he doesn’t find that term to be the most accurate.
“The term I would use is where we’ve had to modify operations, because even during that time, classes may have been canceled but there’s always people here working to keep operations going,” Cody said. “Whether it’s a snow storm or whatever the university never closes, we always have to keep the power on.”
When a decision is made, it’s Cody’s job to communicate it.
Infrastructure Planning and Facilities Snow Supervisor Matt Bailey said he is also involved with the decision-making. He also works to make sure the roads and sidewalks are adequately cleared of snow.
Bailey said he can’t make any true predictions of this upcoming winter, but he’s heard it’s supposed to be worse than last year.
“We are ready for whatever happens, we have all types of instruments we can put on our equipment,” he said.
Bailey said the most difficult part of his job is trying to clear snow during the day, when everyone is out and about.
“That’s really difficult to do because everyone’s trying to drive in adverse conditions and we’re trying to work around them,” he said. “It’s great if it can snow in the late evening and we can come in when no one’s on campus.”
Hospitality business sophomore Samie Weiner said she thinks it’s likely MSU will have a couple snow days this year if the upcoming winter is as brutal as it’s predicted to be.
“I went to Indiana last year, but (our) winter break was pushed back four days because all the highways were closed. So I can only imagine if Indiana had snow days ... and if the winter is supposed to be worse, then I can only imagine (we’ll have snow days), or we’ll have delays,” she said.
