In anticipation of severe winter weather including ice, snow, and extreme cold, Southern Methodist University closed all campus offices and announced students will attend classes virtually on Monday, February 15. However, this decision fails to actually prioritize student health and safety. Administration must reverse this decision, and others released Sunday evening, and cancel all classes immediately. 

Administration notified the SMU community of anticipated power outages over the course of the next two days. These power outages, according to administration, will last for approximately 15 minutes. However, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas has stated the rolling blackouts would last anywhere from 10-45 minutes. Further, on-campus residents were notified essential services, like heating and hot water, may not be available for as long as six hours after each blackout.

Requiring students to attend courses without any heating during a historic winter storm is an egregiously ignorant expectation. Poor environmental conditions aside, on-campus residents will not even have lights—much less wifi—to attend their virtual classes during the random power outages. And then, admin expects students to focus in Zoom classes even though their room doesn't have heat?

In an email to the SMU community titled "Prepare for Potentially Severe Weather," administration referenced Policy 9.12 (University Operations Affected by Emergency Conditions) from the University Policy Manual. In part, this policy states:

"The University will close only under exceptional circumstances due to safety issues or concerns that it is unable to support its teaching, research and public service activities in a satisfactory manner."

Evidently, administration does not anticipate rolling blackouts of electricity and residential heating to impact instruction. Notably, there is no distinction between closing campus and canceling classes in the University Policy Manual. Admin further breaks from its own policies on whether to close campus:

"The decision to alter the University's operating schedule will be made after consideration of these factors:

• Official weather and other emergency service reports from the National Weather Service, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and other local, state, and federal agencies as appropriate for the emergency. Additional factors to be considered are the operational status of other schools and businesses in the area.
• The condition of main campus sidewalks, buildings, parking lots, grounds and landscaping, utilities, and public and campus transportation."

As of Sunday evening, the National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning, Wind Chill Warning, and Hard Freeze Warning for the Dallas area, including the SMU main campus. In addition, the University of Texas at Austin​, University of Texas at Dallas​, University of North Texas, and other institutions have canceled virtual instruction recognizing the burden such a decision places on students. As for conditions on campus, residents have been instructed to move vehicles to lower levels of parking garages and SMU Facilities has been treating sidewalks and streets since Friday.

Which part of the University Policy Manual's framework for closing campus due to emergency conditions has not met? 

Conditions on campus, and in North Texas as a whole, are expected to worsen to near-blizzard status. Administration asked all non-essential personnel to avoid traveling to campus, but expects students to brave the extreme conditions.

These decisions by administration are beyond unacceptable. By closing the institution but not canceling classes, SMU administration has purposefully decided to ease the pressure on faculty and staff but do nothing to ease the burden on students. SMU students are only asking for administration to prioritize our needs and safety too.