finally

I’m glad they finally closed! Sometimes they stay open when they should be closed, meaning that the campus hasn’t been cleaned as well as it needs to be for people to walking all over it.

I got frustrated though when they said that they’d open at 10, then at 12, and then finally said that they were closing. Why couldn’t they have just said closed in the first place?
If it was open, I’d deem them crazy. students should be a first priority.

I was so annoyed when i woke up and saw the campus was supposed to open at 10 that i called Dr. Hrabowski’s office and left a message. ive never done that before. I was so happy when the campus closed. It looks like the UMBC administration has finally realized that they need to look out for our physical well-being just as much as our mental well-being.

Let’s just see what happens tomorrow…

Even right now, I still think the world will end soon for some reason. I mean, UMBC tries to see itself as the “school of steel” and our Retriever mascot should probably have an S on its chest or something. I’m still super super glad we closed today though. I was actually starting to think (prior to today) that whenever the weather was bad, instead of driving to school, the staff and faculty all had high tech watches that would teleport them to work so that they wouldn’t have to risk their necks to drive and school would still be open. (this is just a humorous exaggeration, but still, you get the message)

When I got to the school, nothing was plowed, not even the parking lots. I drove my truck onto snow on the parking circle. It was pathetic how much was done. If they say they want to open at this given time, they need to be ready for this given time.

The same thing happened last time we had some pretty bad snow, they weren’t on top of things when school was opening in about half an hour. The walking paths were so full of ice that walking on the streets was more safe.

I was pretty mad that they screwed around until the last minute to close. Some of us have to travel far.

And here it is, 7 AM on Tuesday, and myUMBC still says, in big bold letters, that UMBC is closed. Who’s in charge of these things, anyway? Maybe they’ll just keep it up for the rest of the semester, to remind us of this momentous occasion.

I know I just realized that or I would of placed it in my first post. Can’t blame those people who miss school because of this screw up. It’s almost laughable how things are being handled.

I am saving that text message forever…I never thought I would see the day. And finally as a senior I was able to. I almost cried.

Why is it that we have to complain so much all the time. If we don’t get a delay or a closing, we complain. When the school does close – we complain.

“I was pretty mad that they screwed around until the last minute to close. Some of us have to travel far.”

The first text was sent out at 5:24 AM that said we’d be opening at 10 AM
The second text was sent out at 7:53 AM that we’d be opening at 12 AM.
The third one at 9:16 about the school closing completely.

That really is enough of a notice time to get to school on time or not leave your house on time.

Be appreciative for once guys!

I must agree with Naina on this one. I live right near annapolis, on average it is usually an hour commute for me and my first class is at 8am. The first umbc alert text actually WOKE me up. Props to umbc on this one.

And although it is relatively inconvenient for umbc to be slow on erasing the school closed alert on the website, as a commuter, I’d rather think there is no school and miss class, than think there is class and waste an hour drive each way. =)

Yeah I don’t think anyone has a commute of 4 hours. Give it a rest. If you don’t like this school, it’s easy to leave!

By 8am I was out of the house. It took me two hours to get to campus only to receive a text from my friend that school had been closed.

Am I happy that they closed? Yes and thank you.
But, why did they wait till the last minute to close school. I mean I was worried about missing my class instead of getting to school safely.

I’m very happy UMBC closed and did it in a timely manner. My first class wasn’t till pretty late in the day, so the first message I saw said it opened at noon. However, I was pleasantly surprised they later decided to remain closed throughout the day.

Here’s one appreciative student!

Naina,

I live in DC and I almost walked out the door to give myself enough time to get to school to be there at 10 AM when my mother said, “No, you are not allowed to go”.

So yeah, people have the right to complain as some people do leave that early in these conditions.

And also, true, no one has to commute 4 hours. But someone who passed elementary math would have known 10 AM minus 7:50 AM would give you a little over 2 hours.

So UMBC still sucks until further notice.

I agree with all the rest of the people that posted! We all feel the same way…UMBC never ever ever closes. I was ao angry when I woke up and saw that we were opening at 10am when I loooked out the window at 830 and saw that snow was still coming down. But right after I saw that UMBC was openign at 10, I saw UMCP was CLOSED and we have more than half our population as commuters and I travel far to get to school. So i think that UMBC administration needs to think about this regarding inclement whether especially ice and snow….because some people choose not to come anyway because it may be worse where they live and then it is not worth it!

@naina

if u live in dc..is it even worth to to go to UMBC?? surely there other intstutions that you could go to that are closer

or you could just live on campus

@r u serious

Yes it is worth going to UMBC. And no, there are no good schools that cost same as UMBC and no, it is too expensive for me to live on campus.

And for all you “well at least the finally closed” people, how about people that don’t sit at their computers pressing the refresh button over and over again. I checked UMBC in the morning, saw it was opening at 10, cursed at my computer screen, then went on with my day. It it hadn’t been for a call from a friend that school had actually closed I would still have shown up at my afternoon class later that day.

But for everyone that has nothing better to do then sit at their computer clicking refresh I can see how you don’t care.

well…

if you added the cost of you commuting back and forth..that could probably add up to a decent amount for you to find a place near the school.

Wow. Why are you all judging someone’s reasons for commuting? You know absolutely nothing about this person’s life! It just isn’t practical or possible for some people to live right near the school they go to. There are various things that could be considerations… location of family (not just parents, some of us have spouses or children!), location of jobs (our own jobs or our spouses jobs), housing prices, etc.

“to naina” and “r u serious”

I don’t think you meant to address me. Seems like we’re on the same side of this argument.

Either way – we got a day off – so yay!

Some of you guys got it easy being so close to campus or on it. Others have to commute far. I agree with what everyone said here to an extent. I didn’t know about the delay for noon until I had already gotten to UMBC. Like some others have said nothing was even plowed or cleaned. They needed to close from the beginning.

That kind of sucked, and about ten minutes later the whole school closed. Well that didn’t do me any good since I was already here, living about two hours away from campus. Then I had to go back home in horrible conditions.

You all should get on the alert system if you aren’t already. It sent out texts almost 4 hours before classes were cancelled for those times.
@eh
If you knew how to read like a second grader you would realize that the 10am classes were cancelled at 5:24am, not 7:50. Thus giving you four hours notice. But i’m glad that you’re in college and your mom had to stop you from walking out the door. Not to mention that if you live in DC umcp which is the same price at UMBC would be a much closer school and gives the same academic record, if not a better one. So stop being rude.

I think its silly that everyone is complaining on here about not knowing the campus was closed. Either get on the alert system or call the closure hotline. They both alerted people well in advance of the closings.

Also, I hate to think that people actually believe calling the presidents office will close the school. The number posted actually just calls his secretary and most of those messages never even reach him. Not to mention that someone in facilities management calls whether or not we close for the day, not Hrabowski. They decide if its safe and clear enough for students.

Stop complaining! Its ridiculous that UMBC actually did something correct for once and you silly people still arent happy. Give it rest.

I don’t understand why anyone is even having the discussion about commuting. Do you know everyone in the campus? Can you tell whether there are people who live 6 hours away or whatever? Can you tell whether there are better schools near them? No? Then what’s the point in talking about it.

The fact of the matter is, if you send a notice about 2 hours before opening that you are closed, especially after already saying that you were just delayed, that’s a problem. No matter what your situation is, that is WAY too last minute.

UMBC gets my respect for actually caring about us this time, especially as a commuter who has to leave a good two hours early to get to class (if I had a class at 12, I would have had to leave around 10 to catch the shuttle; its very possible I wouldn’t have seen the school was closed what with getting ready and such), but they still have some work to do…especially since a lot of the campus was still icy and snowy when I got to school early Tuesday morning.

@D

You should sign up for the alert system. I didn’t sit at my computer all morning clicking “refresh”, I received a text from the school announcing the closure. The emergency alert system is really useful, and for things other than school closures (such as road closures, when there was a water main break earlier this year, and crime alerts)

To commuters,

regardless of your reasons for commuting / distance traveled / obstacles to get here you could def just sign-up for the alert system like meg said. 3 txt msgs is about 30 cents if you don’t have txt. Driving here from wherever you are would almost always cost more than that. So stop complaining.

UMBC,

As usual the school never takes into consideration for the students. Since this was a Monday, UMBC – being that it’s UMBC- should know that many people go home on weekends. Sunday night was not a fun drive for me. I drove blindly in the storm until I saw a sign that said “SEVERE TO IMPOSSIBLE TRAVEL CONDITIONS, TURN AROUND.” You are always trying to prove something to the other schools and no one is really paying attention but your students.

And lastly to everyone else,

I realize how mad severe weather makes things. We are no longer kids – besides the ones who steal dhall trays and go sledding on snow days- and have to worry about real disasters and potential harm. But complaining more about this than real issues like transcript fees and academic policies is unwarranted. i.e. Professors changing syllabuses midway through the year and getting away with it is wrong; then when you do argue about something they’ll use the “as stated in the syllabus” reason. They shouldn’t have it both ways. OR maybe 2-credit science labs having people take midterms during wee hours of night (6-8pm not scheduled time) or additional lab work outside of the 50 min lecture and 4 hour laboratory is ridiculous.

regards, someone who cares

i went snowboarding that day

Don’t worry, it is good that UMBC realized that it was necessary to close and they did so be thankful! But it is important to note for the future that they need to close school when it NEEDS to be closed. If they continue to have an iron fist on canceling school, a UMBC student may die trying to get to school and then they are royally FCKED.

Can somebody take this article down, please?
It’s been almost a week since it snowed, but this article is still popping up on the front page of MyUMBC.