Practical Matters: Making Plans In the Face of Inclement Weather

by Sarah Kain Gutowski, Chair, New Member Program

Welcome back, new members and mentors! I hope everyone had a peaceful and productive holiday season and/or break, depending on your job duties.

Snow and sand and pine needles: Winter on Long Island

Like me, you probably spent a good amount of your time off (whether a few days or a few weeks) preparing for the new semester and the particular set of responsibilities and requirements it brings. Many teaching faculty, for instance, align course material with the academic calendar and plan a schedule of lectures and assignments. Many non-classroom faculty, too, anticipate deadlines or "busy seasons" based on the academic calendar (especially if you work in a skills center or the library). And committee members begin scheduling their meeting times and dates with an eye toward completing any number of charges.

If there's one thing I've learned about preparing for a new spring semester, however, it's that quite often the best plans are upstaged by the worst weather.

We've just experienced (some might say finally) genuine winter weather on Long Island: low temperatures, a dusting of snow, patches of ice on the road and frost on our cars when we leave the house in the morning. And it looks as though this weekend, while it won't be as much as other parts of the country (HAHAINYOURFACEBALTIMOREANDWASHINGTONDC), we'll be getting more snow, and maybe even more than a dusting -- stuff you have to actually shovel.

If we get more than what's predicted, or if some of it melts and then refreezes and then creates ICEPOCALYPSE on the LIE, we may have our normal class schedule disrupted. The administration really dislikes cancelling classes, but sometimes inclement weather forces a late start or an early closing to the school day. If this happens, you'll be notified a couple of different ways:

1. Facebook will erupt in a bunch of "no school today!" posts. Just kidding. (Well, kind of.) 
2. The school will post news about the closing on the home page. 
3. Also, inside the MYSCCC portal. 
4. Also, also, in an email to your school account announcing the closing. 
5. Also also also in a voicemail message (particularly if the closing occurs during the already-in-process school day).
6. Additionally, on any number of local radio stations, including 97.5 FM or 1370 AM, 102.3 FM & East 95.3 FM, 106.1 FM, 92.1 FM 92.1 FM, 103.9 FM, 103.1 FM, 96.1 FM
7. Aaaaaaannnnnddd: News Channel 12 (As Local As Local News Gets!) on TV

So my point is that it'll be really easy to tell whether or not you're expected, as a Faculty Association member, to report to your campus. If you have extenuating circumstances, though, brought about because of the weather -- such as childcare or transportation issues -- and you need to take a personal day and cancel classes, try not to stress too much about the cancellation. I would advise, however, accessing your Blackboard course space and posting an announcement -- easily emailed to students with the click of a button in the Announcement screen-- as soon as possible, so that your students can avoid driving all the way to campus only to find out you're not holding class.

(You can also access an email list on Banner (if, of course, you can actually access Banner  . . . *le sigh*) under the Faculty Services Menu: select "Class Roster" and then scroll to the bottom, where you'll find a button that reads "Display Email List." Select all of the revealed text, copy it, and paste it into an Outlook email -- and this way you can avoid using Blackboard if you really, really want to  . . . even though it's really, really easy (read: much easier) to use Blackboard.)

Additionally, it might help you to know that many of our students rely on public transportation and/or family and friends to get to campus, and their ability to travel may be hindered greatly. On days when there's really bad weather involved, it's best to be gracious and flexible regarding your attendance policies. And if you're forced to cancel class while the rest of Suffolk spins on, be gracious to yourself, too, and don't have a melt down because you can't cover all of the material you planned originally, pre-snow (like *cough* I did, just a few short semesters ago). Remember that if your students can meet all of the learning outcomes on the college's course syllabus by the end of the semester (you can find all of them posted here), you'll be doing your job -- even if this semester's covered material doesn't look exactly like that of previous semesters.

So, fingers crossed that we have just enough snow to play in over the weekend -- with the bulk of it disappearing by Monday! And best of luck with your first weeks of the spring semester -- even if it doesn't feel very spring-like at the moment.