A tall pine tree near the University of Utah’s Union Building succumbed to the incredible amounts of snow that fell all throughout Sunday?and so did early morning classes.
U President Bernie Machen decided to halt all campus activity until noon today after meeting with Vice President for Administrative Services Arnie Combe and campus police Chief Ben Lemmon.
The cancellation coincided with a “heavy snow warning” from the National Weather Service. NWS meteorologists expected to see an additional 10 to 20 inches of powder by that time.
U spokeswoman Coralie Alder said the campus could not keep up with snow removal if the NWS forecasts were accurate.
Combe said he contacted the director of plant operations, who oversees snow removal, and while the crews kept the roads relatively clean throughout Sunday, they could not keep up with the parking lots.
With the closure of the Rice Eccles Stadium lot, administrators were worried that the snow would compound parking problems causing confusion on campus.
Lemmon stayed in contact with Highway Patrol and the Salt Lake City Police Department about road conditions on the way to campus. He reported to Machen that I-80, I-215 and I-15 were all in poor condition.
University Hospital and other essential services remained open throughout the day, according to Fred Esplin, vice president for university relations.
Medical staff were upset that initial news reports did not specify that the hospital and all of its adjoining clinics would remain open.
“We are not closed. We tried to call the news stations, we had patients calling asking to cancel their surgery but we are not closed. We are fine, we have been here 24/7 and we always will be,” Hospital Staffing Coordinator Chay Terry said.
This is the first time Machen has ever had to cancel classes due to weather. The last time administrators made a similar decision was in the mid-1990s when Art Smith was in his first two years as U president.