The college will have a delayed opening on Wednesday, March 14 after a closing on Tuesday due to high winds and snowfall caused by the third nor’easter storm this year. Administrative offices will open at 9:30 a.m. and classes will begin at 10 a.m., according to Emerson Alerts.
Director of Media Relations Michelle Gaseau said in an email to the Beacon that Emerson closed the campus on Tuesday because of the hazardous travel conditions caused by the storm. The school sent out an email at 10 p.m. March 12 to notify students.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning at 11 p.m. March 12, which will stay in effect until 8 p.m. March 13. They predicted up to 18 inches of snow and near blizzard conditions with winds at about 27 mph.
According to an email sent out by the school, the Dining Center, Max Cafe, and the Paramount Cafe operated during normal hours and Center Stage opened at 11 a.m. The Iwasaki Library was open from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. and the Fitness Center was closed.
Duncan Pollock, assistant vice president for facilities and campus services, said his office made arrangements with employees to ensure that dining services would remain available to students. This included asking some morning workers to stay the afternoon for extra pay, in case the second-shift workers couldn’t make it to campus. Pollock said the first-shift workers arrive at 6 a.m. and most of them take public transportation.
“We want the students to be able to get to dine as usual because the students who are housed on-campus can’t go anywhere,” Pollock said. “It’s really important to keep the Paramount Cafe open, the main dining center and the Max Cafe open because it gives the students options.”
Freshman Nicole Turner said she’s glad the school closed Tuesday and planned on doing homework.
“I didn’t even want to walk to the [Dining Center] this morning,” Turner said. “It’s just not safe and it’s not a good idea to be out there right now.”
Housing pushed the opening day of all housing applications to March 14 from March 12. Assistant Director of Housing Operations Kendra Stokes said this is because staff weren’t on-campus to help students during the first day of the applications. Although the staff was working from home Stokes was concerned about possible internet outages.
“With the snow, we felt as though not having direct contact with our office could cause undue stress to students,” Stokes said. “We know that selection causes stress to students and it is our goal to minimize this as much as possible.”
