Dear university administrators,

You remember that big snowstorm yesterday? I sure do. Immediately after waking up, I checked your "weather status page", where I read: "The university is monitoring the situation. No decision to close the university has been taken." I also read the part where you said "A decision to cancel classes will be taken by 5:30 AM on the day in question." It was about 7 AM when I read this.

So like a good trooper, I trudged out into the snow and endured a slow ride on public transit to do the only thing I absolutely had to do at the university on Friday, which was to teach my 10:30 class. The class was about half full, which is frankly more than I was expecting given how much snow was coming down.

So I teach, and go back to my office at 11:30, where I open my email to find a panicky message reading: "WEATHER EMERGENCY -- University closed". To this I have two responses. First, what happened to 5:30 AM? And second, most people who were going to be at the university (such as myself) when you took this decision, in mid-storm, were already here. By not closing the university in advance of the storm you put everyone at risk unnecessarily, and your emergency closure improved the safety of basically nobody. Who is making these decisions?