About 14 inches of snow fell in Philadelphia last week, but the University decided to remain open. Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli said that only an “extraordinary event” would close the University.
However, we believe that the fact that many members of the faculty and staff — and even students who commute — had no way to travel to Penn constitutes such an extraordinary event. Numerous SEPTA bus and rail routes were canceled, and virtually all modes of transportation experienced significant delays.
It was impractical and unsafe to expect these members of the Penn community to reach campus on time. The University should have at least held a delayed opening to accommodate their travel.
A number of professors could not make the trip to campus and called off classes anyway. A University-wide closure would have kept things uniform and would have prevented unnecessary confusion.
There are many more factors to consider than just the conditions in University City and the students living on or near campus. But even here, many walkways had not been cleared and remained covered by snow, making walking to and from class difficult and dangerous.
Carnaroli said that the choice to keep Penn open was a “very challenging decision.” We would have preferred if he had made the alternative choice.
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