Sandy Shuts Down Classes, Exams for a Day

With gusts topping more than 60 miles per hour, Hurricane Sandy brought down branches, power lines, and several midterms. For the first time in 34 years, Harvard University suspended classes due to inclement weather on Monday.

Though professors were not required to come to campus, the University continued its “core operations”—including normal dining and shuttle services for undergraduates—requiring dining hall workers, shuttle drivers, and facilities workers to report for duty despite the storm.

Donald Ford, a facility maintenance operations employee working in the Yard Monday afternoon, said he and his co-workers were “basically waiting for something to happen.”

The dining hall restrictions in Adams and Quincy and the upperclassmen restriction at Annenberg were suspended. Alison Farley, the general manager of the Cabot and Pforzheimer House dining halls, said she saw more students than usual in the dining halls.

“It’s been pretty busy. All the kids are here, so we’ve been working to make sure they’re well-fed,” Farley said.

Chad Campo, chef and production manager of Leverett House, said that all Leverett dining hall workers except one had been able to make it into work. The MBTA closed its operations at 2 p.m. on Monday, allowing workers to use the transportation to commute to work.

“We already determined carpool scenarios,” said Campo.

The University worked in coordination with Harvard University Dining Services to determine the best way to help staff during the emergency, according to an email from Faculty of Arts and Sciences spokesperson Jeff Neal.

HUDS also offered to put workers up in hotels if they would not be able to travel home, Neal wrote in the email.

Students showed their appreciation of dining hall workers by holding standing ovations in several campus dining halls Monday night.

As a result of Monday’s canceled classes, many courses also pushed back midterms and papers.

Kyle T. H. Flattery ’15 was supposed to have two midterms, one for Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology 10: “Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology” and the other for Chemistry 17: “Principles of Organic Chemistry,” on Monday.

The University announced its decision to cancel classes around 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, and by 11:00 p.m., both midterms had been rescheduled for later this week.

After hearing his tests had been postponed, Flattery decided to turn Hurricane Sandy’s arrival into a “sleeping-in day.”

“It’s strange to be so happy about a natural disaster,” Flattery said.

Despite excitement from students, United States and the World 31: “American Society and Public Policy” professor Theda Skocpol said she was concerned about moving the course’s midterm because she believed her students were prepared for the midterm.

“All the students in our class have been doing the work all along. They just get more anxious,” Skocpol said.

Ethical Reasoning 33: “Medical Ethics and History” professor David S. Jones ’92 chose to postpone a paper originally due on Monday.

“I got an email from a student wondering if we were having it due today. It got me thinking whether it’s worth it or not,” Jones said.

Jones said he reasoned that, had he asked papers to be due in lecture instead of by electronic submission, the deadline would have had to be postponed.

He said he believed the decision to postpone the paper was appropriate following the University’s decision to shut down.

Jones said papers could be turned in before the new Tuesday deadline, but as of 3:15 p.m. on Monday, only 35 out of 215 have been submitted, according to Jones.

Professors were generally not concerned about how to make up material from the canceled lectures. Jones said he will incorporate Monday’s lecture into the week’s section.

“I don’t anticipate that the loss of one lecture day will be highly problematic,” wrote Chemistry 30: “Organic Chemistry” professor Andrew G. Myers, whose course also had a midterm scheduled for Monday.

According to Harvard’s website, the University plans to resume normal operations Tuesday.

—Samuel Y. Weinstock contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Kerry M. Flynn can be reached at kflynn@college.harvard.edu.