UNIVERSITY SHUTS DOWN THURSDAY

In the face of a snowstorm, Southeast Missouri State University virtually shut down Thursday for the first time since the area was buried in a blizzard 14 years ago.

The university canceled classes as of noon, including all night classes, and shut down non-essential operations, letting many employees go home early.

University President Kala Stroup made the decision about 9:45 a.m. after meeting with Ken Dobbins, vice president for finance and administration.

University officials said the decision was made because work crews were unable to keep up with snow removal and the forecast called for rain, sleet and more snow.

Dobbins said Thursday morning: "We talked to our road crews. They have been out since midnight last night and they can't keep up with the snow removal.

"We were looking at safety factors," Dobbins said in explaining the decision to close down.

Bill Moon, physical plant director, said the university doesn't have the equipment to deal with heavy accumulations of snow on the roads and sidewalks of the hilly campus. "We are not really equipped to handle 7 to 14 inches of snow on the campus streets," said Moon.

"I probably have nearly 50 people on there now just trying to keep the walks open and sanded, and Snow-Melt on them," Moon said Thursday morning.

Moon said the hilly terrain makes snow- and ice-covered streets more dangerous.

Then, there's the problem of snow removal. "We have narrow streets, and when we move the snow we have nowhere to go with it," he said.

The snow-removal effort on campus involved Southeast's front-end loaders normally used to load coal for the power plant, as well as a motor grader, 10 to 15 small tractors with blades, and two small spreaders. Fertilizer spreaders were used to sand the sidewalks, Moon said.

As to the tractors, he said, "You can't move much with them, but it's better than nothing."

Ironically, the university's closing occurred only a day after Sheila Caskey, interim provost, said Southeast's policy basically is to remain open except in the case of a declared state or national emergency. "We're just not going to close," she said.

Caskey's comment came at Wednesday afternoon's Faculty Senate meeting and came in response to questions by some faculty members as to why the university remained open when a winter storm dumped more than a foot of snow on the Cape Girardeau area on Feb. 15.

Some faculty members said they felt it was a waste of time to teach that day because few students showed up for classes. In addition, they said the roads were hazardous, making it difficult for many employees and students to reach the campus.

Dobbins said Thursday that Caskey was correct in saying that the university almost never closes because of the weather.

But he and other university officials said the snow-removal problems and the forecast of more bad weather were key reasons for Thursday's closing, not any concerns raised by the Faculty Senate.

Thursday's storm dumped about 6 inches of snow on the Cape Girardeau area, about half the amount of the previous storm.

But Moon said this storm was worse for snow removal because it was a different type of snow than that which fell last week.

"This snow is almost a sleet. As soon as it hits the ground here, it is icing up and it is getting slick as opposed to a drier type of snow," Moon said.

Moon said during the morning that university crews would be "overwhelmed" if the bad weather continued.

"I have people who have been out there for 12 to 15 hours already and we have got to get a rest here," said Moon as the snow continued to fall Thursday morning.