Last week’s weather in the Hammond area fell short of its predicted dangerous wintry mix of rain, sleet, ice and snow.

Despite the lack of weather severity in Hammond, surrounding areas in which many students, faculty and staff members reside faced icy conditions primarily on bridges and secondary roads. As a result, the university was completely closed on Tuesday and Wednesday with a half day for university staff on Thursday.

The university collaborated with regional leaders in making the decisions to prepare for the storm.

“All decisions are made with knowledge from collaboration with regional and parish leaders,” said Erin Cowser, executive director of public and governmental affairs. “Those who live in South Louisiana are well aware that Mother Nature can throw a fierce curve ball at times. We were ready if she did, but are certainly thankful this wasn’t one of those times.”

According to Carmen Bray, interim director for the university police department, Southeastern made the decision to shut down campus in order to prepare for the worst, while hoping for the best.

“Because of the weather, the university decided to close campus, just to be safe,” said Bray. “We have a lot of commuter students, and it was felt that it would be best to err on the side of caution for the safety of the Southeastern community as a whole.”

Due to the loss of class time, solutions for getting back on track are being discussed by university officials.

“The university will need to make up days later in the semester in order to achieve the necessary number of class days,” said Cowser. “No decisions have been made yet regarding makeup days.”

Many housing residents evacuated in response to university recommendations. However, a number of students chose to remain in campus housing through the week.  For these students, Campus Dining provided food at Cayman Café, which was kept open throughout the week with shortened hours from 10 a.m. till 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

“There are some resident students who have no choice but to stay in their residence hall duringthese types of weather events,” said Amanda Robbins, assistant director for residential life. “The University was prepared to provide food to these students and, had it become necessary, would have transported these students to a warming shelter in the event of any long-term power outage.”  

Housing worried about possible issues with water leakage or power outage. Despite predictions and worries, the campus survived the winter storm with few damages to report.

“In Hammond, we didn’t receive the amount of ice or snow that was expected. There were accidents around the outside of campus, some that involved students, but to our knowledge no one was severely hurt,” said Bray. “We didn’t have any reports of break-ins.  Our patrol officers made it a point to walk through all the buildings on campus to make sure everything was secured and to check for any major water leaks.”  

Throughout the week the UPD continued working with the normal amount of officers for each shift.

“Even though the campus is closed, UPD will always be on duty,” said Bray.

The storm-related inconveniences included icy grounds, closed highways and forced indoor time for many. Tiray Dove, a senior general studies major, lives in the university apartments and remained in Hammond throughout the campus closure.

“It didn’t really bother me,” said Dove. “It wasn’t too bad; I was still able to go where I needed to go. I spent my time at home and at the gym.”

During the weather-forced vacation, many students took advantage of the additional time to catch up on course work, sleep andrelaxation time. Allison Doan,a senior biology major, lives on campus and remained in the area throughout the storm.

“I was pretty excited when I heard about the closures because I could use the time to catch up and get ahead in some of my classes,” said Doan. “I spent my days off in Hammond hanging with some friends and mainly relaxing.”

Overall, the university made some decisions to ensure the safety of students, faculty and staff. Many felt Southeastern was well prepared for the winter storm which ensued. Katie Neil, a junior biological science major, resides on campus, but evacuated in accordance with housing recommendations.

“When the university recommended that all students leave the dorms if possible, I was rather shocked. I didn’t think it was necessary to leave, but the possibility of being evacuated in the middle of the night forced me to do so,” said Neil. “I feel the university was very prepared for the situation and may have prevented many injuries by keeping the students off of the icy roads. Good job, Southeastern!”