Extreme Winter Weather Triggers Wave of College Closures Across the Midwest

David Joles, AP Images

It’s not run-of-the-mill winter weather.

Winter Storm Jayden is projected to drop more than a foot of snow and historically low temperatures on the Midwest in the coming days. The weather is expected to be so harsh that even colleges accustomed to the elements are facing the reality that sometimes it’s just too cold to stay open.

Until Tuesday, officials at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor assured the campus that it would operate as normal for the rest of the week, even as they warned students not to be outside for more than 10 minutes at a time, or risk frostbite.

A group of students started a petition in response to the university’s decision to delay canceling classes on Wednesday and Thursday. Students said they were “deeply disturbed” by the refusal to close after a campus bus full of passengers spun out and crashed into a tree.

“Not canceling classes is not only a careless move,” the petition says, but “it spells ignorance on the administration’s part to the plight of many of its marginalized community members.”

For example, students and workers without transportation would have to trudge through the subzero weather, and those who are not able-bodied would face worse challenges in getting to work or class, the petition says.

On Tuesday the university decided to cancel classes after all, for only the third time in 40 years.

Michigan is far from the only institution to make that call. The University of North Dakota decided to close with temperatures headed for 25 degrees below zero Fahrenheit and more than a foot of snow smothering the campus. The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities also closed; it will receive up to 12 inches by the end of the night, according to the National Weather Service. Northwestern Medicine at Northwestern University went on Twitter to discuss skin protection against frostbite.

Closing a campus in a region equipped for very cold weather — where the assumption is that it will stay open — takes a lot of communication, said Bobby Fleischman, associate vice president for strategic partnerships at Minnesota State University at Mankato.

More than 10 inches of snow fell on the campus of 14,000 students at the start of the week. But first and foremost, he said, the university considers the safety of students, faculty members, and the staff.

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“It is very rare that we cancel classes — maybe once or twice a year,” Fleischman said. “Closing the campus, which is separate from canceling classes, rarely happens.”

The university decided to close for the first time since 2014 when the wind-chill effect drove temperatures to between 25 and 65 degrees below zero on Sunday.

By the time blankets of white cover the campus’s 10 miles of sidewalks, Fleischman said, campus administrators have been planning for days. He gets up at night over and over to check the weather, look out for road closures, and more. Closing the Mankato campus requires communication among other campuses in the Minnesota State system, public-safety officials, city administrators, and public-transportation agencies, among others.

Dining halls stay open for residential students — all 3,000 of them — when the campus is closed, and there are backup systems if the storm were to cut power in the dormitories, Fleischman said.

“Eliminating confusion and being clear in messaging,” he said, “is of critical importance, as you can imagine.”

He said the university does its best to have a plan that can be reported on the 10 p.m. news, before students, faculty members, and staff members go to sleep.

The Star Tribune published photos on Tuesday of college students in Minneapolis as they faced negative-12-degree weather. One shot featured Miles, a University of Minnesota student “who declined to give his last name because he said his mom would be mad at him for how he was dressed.”

Follow Lily Jackson on Twitter at @lilygjack, or email her at lily.jackson@chronicle.com.