Prompted by poor area road conditions and a forecast of six to eight inches of snow, University officials joined dozens of area schools and decided to cancel classes for the first time in almost three years Thursday. Students woke up Thursday morning to find six inches of snow and one day free to play football on the Quad or study for next week’s exams.
University officials kept offices and student facilities open, instituting a liberal leave policy for staff unable to travel into the city. However, a GW decision to not schedule a class makeup day because of scheduling constraints upset some students.
Vice President and Treasurer Louis Katz said he made the decision at 6:05 a.m. Thursday after receiving reports from University facilities officials and final weather and traffic reports.
“We tried to make the decision that would be best for the University and we were concerned that faculty and some graduate students would have a hard time making it to our campuses,” Katz said. “We did not want to leave students in classes without professors.”
While Georgetown University officials said they elected to keep classes open because of student proximity to campus, Katz said GW’s lack of a “self-contained” campus caused him to make the decision to close.
Although some students said they believe they have the right to sue the University for canceling classes without a makeup day, law professor John Banzhaf said students would have no claim because snow is a natural disaster the University could not prevent.
“Ordinarily, where there is a contract … if you have a serious storm, terrorist attack, something else beyond University control that prevents (it) from having its classes, (GW) would not be legally liable,” Banzhaf said.
However, he said, several students brought a suit against GW during the Vietnam War era because the University elected to cancel classes in support of a national day of solidarity against the war. Students claimed that they pay a certain price per credit hour and deserve to attend class no matter what.
The last time GW canceled classes for snow was in February 2000, but students made up the classes at the end of the semester in May, according to a past Hatchet article.
In a message e-mailed to students, the University explained that it was up to professors to reschedule classes for Saturday or the universal make-up day, Tuesday. However, officials cited already heavy scheduling Tuesday and a wish to preserve reading days Wednesday and Thursday as reasons for the lack of a specific make-up day
Some students said the University had no right to cancel classes without a scheduled make-up day.
“We pay over $20,000. (For) every penny we put into (GW), we should something out of it,” freshman Yousef Casewit said.
He said the University should have opted for a “universal make-up” day on a Saturday or Sunday if rescheduling class time was a problem.
“They should’ve scheduled a make-up day or two since it’s so close to finals,” freshman Gina Muscara said.
Activities for the day ranged from playing in the snow to exploring the District.
Other students said they spent the day off studying for exams this week or working on papers that were postponed because of snow.
“I had a project and presentation and two accounting problem sets due. I’ll just hand them in Tuesday,” sophomore Steve Potter said.
