Staff Editorial: Geneseo administration was right to cancel classes for safety of students, faculty

On Saturday Nov. 30, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer Gail Glover sent out an email to Geneseo students and faculty stating that classes and activities taking place on Monday Dec. 2 were canceled. This decision was made in lieu of the severe snowstorm that affected the Northeast and therefore would make travel back to campus dangerous. 

Geneseo’s judgment about the risks that travel would pose for the community was reasonable, seeing that some New York regions got as much as 13 inches of snow, according to The New York Times. When news of the impending storm started to spread in the days following Thanksgiving, many students began calling for Geneseo to cancel that Monday’s classes, believing it would be too unsafe for people to travel back to school on Sunday. One student went so far as to create a petition on Change.org, entitled “Cancel SUNY Geneseo’s Classes Monday,” which racked up more than 2,000 signatures.

Roads were blanketed in thick layers of snow and ice by Sunday afternoon that would have created hazardous conditions, especially for students coming from Long Island and Eastern New York. But while students have been known to push the administration to cancel classes in the past—whether that’s truly down to the upcoming snowstorm or because of other motives such as wanting a test to be moved—Geneseo made the right call in cancelling classes on Monday.

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