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The Daily Tar Heel

Class cancellation was poorly handled

TO THE EDITOR:

I am writing to voice my displeasure about the nature of the Alert Carolina message sent Wednesday morning.

Firstly, the original message on http://unc.edu was unclear, leaving many students unsure as to whether Thursday classes were cancelled all day or only until 11 a.m.

When Alert Carolina sent out the email clarifying that Thursday classes had cancelled until 11 a.m. unless stated otherwise, I wasn’t alone in my bewilderment.

Students all over campus were left wondering why a forecast of 3-5 inches of snow and almost an inch of ice throughout the area that was supposed to continue falling through Thursday wasn’t enough to cancel classes for the day.

It is very clear that the town of Chapel Hill is inadequately equipped to handle such a snowstorm, particularly in time for classes past 11 a.m. on Thursday.

We don’t live in New York City, where a fleet of countless snowplows is ready at any moment to deal with a winter storm.

This is sunny Chapel Hill.

Let’s be realistic here.

Cars are littered all over the roads here, with many of them being abandoned.

This isn’t just a classic case of a student calling for classes to be cancelled at the first sight of a snowflake — this is a serious snowstorm, at least for Chapel Hill, and appropriate measures need to be taken.

Leaving the status of class in limbo until officials have time to get a better feel for the conditions of the road is unnecessary.

Spoiler alert — the roads are still going to be in bad, if not undrivable, shape.

Failing to cancel all Thursday classes immediately was a shortsighted move that just serves to inconvenience students and faculty who are stuck at home on Wednesday wondering whether they have to complete their work for Thursday.

Mary Yount ‘15
Communications
Journalism

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