This university traditionally starts its semesters on Tuesdays. Monday is generally the most hated day of the week, so why not give the students and faculty an extra day to catch their breath before taking the plunge? Everyone knows it’s just better to start on Tuesday.
Everyone, including Mother Nature.
This semester, for some fantastic reason, USM said ‘Hey, let’s salvage every day we can this semester and start on a Monday! Mondays suck anyway, so why not just get the semester off to an earlier start?’
Apparently, this was a bad idea.
In response to this change of tradition, a snow stormageddon blasted all of Southern Maine from 3 a.m. to 11 p.m., leaving between 14 and 20 inches of the white stuff smothering everything-including both campuses.
And so the decision process begins.
Unlike the old high school days, school cancellations at USM don’t rely on one superintendent (which was much more fun if you had a super who liked to ski; school was cancelled at the suggestion of a storm). Rather, a whole team of people, on and off campus, are involved in deciding whether or not classes will be held.
The Office of the President says that the initial determination is made at 4:30 a.m., right about the time some of the school’s more die-hard gangs are beginning to pass out.
The individual campus supervisors check to see how bad the storm is so far, and if they think they can get ahead of it by clearing off the walkways and campus roads. Once they make their decision, they call Director of Facilities, Dave Early, and let him know.
The process then goes to Chief Financial Officer Dick Campbell, who ultimately makes the final call. If there is any question, he makes a call off-campus, to meteorologist Russ Merley, to check on any changing weather patterns. We all know that a small flurry at 4:30 can turn into a blizzard by the morning commute.
The only person who can override a decision for or against a cancellation is the university president, currently Joe Wood.
For many students with classes that only meet on Mondays, this recent cancellation really changes their next few weeks. Media Studies senior Devon Smith says, “Well it set me back a little in my Combat War Film class. Since next Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I won’t have my once-a-week class until the third week into the semester. That kind of messes things up.”
Lucky for him, the Office of the President has decided to extend the add/drop deadline to Friday Feb. 1 for students with classes that meet only on Mondays.
Thanks Mother Nature, we don’t like Mondays either.
The Office of the President wants to remind students that regardless of an official cancellation, they don’t want to encourage students to put themselves in danger trying to get to school. If the roads are bad and you don’t feel comfortable, contact your professor or the Dean of your college.