Faculty Question Snow Policy

Earlier this week--while some of Harvard's graduate schools closed due to snow--the College remained open, prompting questions and confusion among Faculty members.

Unsure if the College had cancelled their course meetings, Faculty members deluged the Office of the Registrar with "hundreds of calls," according to Associate Registrar Thurston Smith.

"The FAS never officially closes, but individual faculty members must decide whether they are able to get in," Smith said.

Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 wrote in an e-mail that he had made the decision to leave the Faculty free to exercise their own discretion after a discussion with Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles.

It is not "unreasonable to expect undergraduate students to walk to class since 97 percent of them are living on campus," Lewis wrote.

Lewis said that because Harvard is a residential college, "to a great extent there can be no such thing as a closing." Police, dining hall workers and maintenance staff all have to be here to take care of students.

"It's not too much to ask the Faculty to show up to teach if they safely can," Lewis said.

But Bernbaum Professor of Literature Leo Damrosch, who lives in Newton and has no access to public transportation, said that staff members often feel obligated to come in to work despite hazardous weather conditions.

He said he was surprised that the administration didn't close the College.

"I don't know if they're being macho, or what," he said.

History Department Chair David Blackbourn, who commutes from Lexington, said he wished that the College had cancelled classes, "if only because it would have relieved the slight guilt I felt [at cancelling class]."

Blackbourn was emphatic that, given the choice, he would have cancelled his class again.

"I am reluctant to deprive my family of a husband and father," he said.

While there was no College or FAS decision to shut down, several graduate schools--including the medical, dental and law schools--did shut down.

Harvard Law School (HLS), like the College, has a large percentage of students who live on or near campus, but HLS spokesperson Michael A. Armini said that many law school faculty and staff members have longer commutes.

HLS Dean Robert C. Clark made the decision to shut down after consulting with the director of human resources and the dean of administration. Within 15 minutes of the 4 p.m. decision on Monday afternoon, administrators posted the information on the school's website and e-mailed all students and faculty.

"I think we did a good job on execution," Armini said.