After 20 inches of snow, 25-foot waves and 70-mile-per-hour winds pummeled the Chicago area Tuesday night, Northwestern had to deal with its aftermath Wednesday.
Neither the University Shuttle Service nor SafeRide could run. On campus, the Norris University Center open late and closed early, while University Health Service, Counseling and Psychological Services, the Sports Pavilion and Aquatic Center and Willard and Elder dining halls closed all day.
Despite the closures, Dean of Students Burgwell Howard said Facilities Management did “an excellent job” of clearing campus and making it safe Wednesday, the day after a historic blizzard that closed NU’s campus for the first time since 1979. According to snow estimates, it was the third-largest blizzard in Chicago history.
“In many ways, Northwestern is in better shape than the rest of the city of Evanston,” Howard said. “During the middle of the night, they had crews out on two-hour rotations plowing, brooming, hand-shoveling throughout the storm, trying to keep up to keep the main thoroughfares on campus open.”
Not that the task was easy, Howard said.
“With the high winds, sometimes it was a losing battle,” he said. “They’d clear an area, and the wind would blow it right back.”
Campus will reopen Thursday for classes and all usual operations.
“On Thursday, Feb. 3, 2011, Northwestern University will be open during normal business hours and classes will be held. Students, faculty and staff are urged to consider using public transportation when coming to the Chicago or Evanston campus. If you believe it is unsafe to travel, stay home,” according to a posting on NU’S website midday Wednesday.
University spokesman Al Cubbage said NU had to switch to less efficient plows as a result of hard-packed snow drifts, but Facilities Management still made progress in clearing campus walkways and maintaining buildings by 2 p.m.
“Sidewalks were pretty clear, and the parking lots were clear,” he said. “As a result, we made the decision to go ahead and open the University.”
The emergency notification system, which alerted students of campus closures and openings, worked well, Cubbage said. In a span of five minutes, the system sent e-mails to 31,594 addresses and text messages to 25,994 phone numbers.
Howard said administrators and safety officials tried to take student needs into account as they decided whether or not to cancel classes.
“There was a lot of questioning before the storm hit and the decision was made to close,” he said. “Once the announcement had gone out yesterday that evening classes were canceled, that relieved some folks, but lots of people were wondering if they had work due today, what would happen. That’s part of why the administrators and senior administrators made the decision as early as they did last night based on information that was available so people could plan accordingly.”
Cubbage said he wanted to give a “shout-out” to food service workers, who came to campus along with University Police and Health Service employees.
After asking if the campus-wide snowball fight happened, Cubbage said he hopes students “had a good day.”
“I imagine most of you slept until noon or whatever, enjoyed the day off,” he said. “Hopefully you got out and saw the campus. This is a historic thing.”
He also lamented the lack of trays in the dining hall.
“I wonder if one of the unintended consequences of going trayless is that students don’t have the sleds to go down Norris Hill,” he said.
