UCF’s gross mishandling of the Hurricane Ian disaster began the week before, when UCF neglected to close campus beginning Monday and instead decided to close it starting Wednesday, giving students 24 hours to evacuate. International and out-of-state students were left with little to no time to leave the Orlando area.

Unfortunately for the Orlando area, the worst came to pass. Hurricane Ian caused what has been described as a 500-year flood event in the Central Florida area. The Arden Villas and Place at Alafaya communities were particularly hard hit, with catastrophic flooding resulting in the total destruction of ground level apartments and AC outages potentially leaving other apartments  contaminated with mold and floodwater. Hundreds of UCF students (including me!) are homeless.

Here’s the kicker: UCF knows. They know their community isn’t ready to return to classes. They postponed their football game to Wednesday, not Tuesday when classes begin again. They even knew that Hurricane Ian would cause devastation to the Central Florida area. Just before deciding not to close campus the week prior to Ian’s landfall, UCF’s Emergency Management team released an internal slideshow predicting Tropical Storm-level impact to the UCF area. They decided NOT to close campus despite KNOWING the likelihood of impact beforehand.

Thankfully, President Cartwright and UCF compromised and postponed reopening until Tuesday. But our Knights need time to support their families rebuilding their communities in Ft. Myers and Naples, to pick up the pieces of their lives after devastation to the Orlando area, and to find new places to live in the UCF area.

UCF STUDENTS: Join us in DEMANDING that Dr. Alexander Cartwright  cancel classes for next week.