UPDATED: Wednesday Jan. 30, 2019 at 11:26 p.m.

Syracuse University canceled evening classes and all university-sponsored events after 4 p.m. Wednesday due to plunging, sub-zero wind-chill temperatures.

The university, in a campus-wide email, also said the weather could affect Thursday classes, and that it would make an announcement on any schedule changes by 6:30 a.m. Thursday.

A wind chill warning is in effect until Thursday at 6 p.m., as wind chills between -20 and -30 degrees Fahrenheit are expected, according to Weather.com. The coldest wind chills were expected Wednesday night into Thursday morning and could cause frostbite on exposed skin within 30 minutes, per Weather.com.

All residence halls and dining centers remained open, along with Health Services and the Counseling Center. Campus libraries were also reported to be operating at normal hours.

The Women’s Building and Ernie Davis fitness centers remained open, but other fitness locations closed.

SU last canceled a full day of classes in 2018 — only the third time in university history. That was during a large winter storm.

In the 90 minutes that followed SU’s Wednesday announcement, students and community members said the effects of the evening cancelation were minimal.

Sophomore Cameron Stepec was in Hinds Hall when she received the email, shortly after her class started at 3:45 p.m. Her professor didn’t cancel class on the spot, she said, but her class was eventually released early.

Stepec said she stayed up until 3 a.m. Wednesday, hoping to receive an email that announced class cancelations. Two of her sorority sisters in Kappa Kappa Gamma penned “strongly-worded” letters to Chancellor Kent Syverud on Tuesday night, asking him to cancel classes, she said.

Syeisha Byrd, Hendricks Chapel’s director of engagement programs, said morning classes should not have been canceled because it wasn’t as cold in the morning.

“Why cancel classes? I went to work,” she said of the morning hours. “I think the colder it got, it (became) smart of the university to do that because it protects people.”

Byrd, who runs the campus coat drive, said she got a phone call Wednesday saying that a student needed gloves and a hat.

Sophomore Joseph Hunter, a SUNY-ESF student, said he saw the announcement on a TV screen in the Heroy Geology Building. He wasn’t aware that an email was sent out, and Hunter thought that most students wouldn’t have realized that classes were canceled, he said.

Junior Zekun Liu said he was disappointed to receive the announcement because he had just finished his classes for the day. He said the school shouldn’t have officially canceled classes, and instead could have allowed faculty and students to choose whether or not to attend.

This post has been updated with additional reporting.

Published on January 30, 2019 at 6:30 pm

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