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<p>Many didn’t, but some had test that they couldn’t miss and would lose points for not going, I’m sure. </p>
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<p>Ah yes, because EVERYONE has the option to leave the state to go to school.</p>
<p>I am just plain embarrassed that this behavior comes from students at our state flagship. </p>
<p>I was glad to see that some alumni posted in response, apologizing for the students’ behavior. </p>
<p>I don’t support the things these students have said, but if it’s a-okay to be walking across campus right now then I’d like to know where all the outrage is about the k-12 schools being closed-- there’s no snow days in the real world, right? Our local high school was closed yesterday, and the last time it was this cold and they didn’t there was outrage from the parents. Does something magical happen somewhere between elementary school and college that suddenly makes it safe to be outside when your flesh starts to freeze after a few minutes? What age exactly causes this to happen, and how did I miss out?!</p>
<p>“If it is too cold, maybe they should have picked a school in the south.”</p>
<p>Hey, it’s cold here, too. A number of southern schools were closed yesterday. </p>
<p>The difference betwen closing a K-12 school and a university is this: The K-12 kids stay home, where they can fend for themselves or where their parents are. At the university, I can virtually guarantee that the students still expect the cafeteria staff to show up and make sure they are fed - they don’t get to stay home in the cold, do they? Students still have to get from their dorms to the dining hall, so they can’t just “stay inside”. And I know that when I was in college, when it was really cold, we didn’t all stay inside! We went visiting, we had snowball fights, whatever. These kids just didn’t want to go to class!</p>
<p>So, I think this is where it’s worth mentioning that the vast majority of college students are commuters. </p>
<p>Their posts were horrible. I was very surprised to see that. If any of the students were actually concerned about their health/safety (and expressed concern for their health and safety politely), I would understand - that campus is HUGE. When the air temp is 10-15 below zero with wind chills of negative 30-40, (as it was in the Chicago area) I do think school should be closed. College kids live all different distances from campus and the shuttles are overflowing and run late in that weather. I do view that level of cold as a safety issue.</p>
<p>Just reaffirming that I am not okay with the tweets. I just don’t think their lack of taste makes it any safer outside, I don’t agree with that particular tangent of this discussion. This isn’t bundle-up-and-deal weather. It is unfortunate that they felt the need to resort to sexist and racist personal attacks to express their opinions, but I am afraid I am not surprised. There are a lot of bad people in the world and a lot of them go to college.</p>
<p>Also reaffirming that I think their tweets were disgusting and vile. </p>
<p>"Does something magical happen somewhere between elementary school and college that suddenly makes it safe to be outside when your flesh starts to freeze after a few minutes? What age exactly causes this to happen, and how did I miss out?! "</p>
<p>What you’re missing is that elementary school kids may be waiting for buses in these temperatures, Emaheevul. That’s why Chicago public schools (and other city schools) close. Of course there’s a difference between what you would expect elementary kids to buck-up-and-deal-with, and what you’d expect college kids and adults to buck-up-and-deal-with.</p>
<p>Plenty of offices that have lots of workers who use public transportation also close during this type of weather, because it’s unsafe to have people waiting for long periods of time in the cold for a train or bus. It’s not just about walking from parking lots to buildings.</p>
<p>Of course, even if it were 100 degrees below and U of I didn’t close, those tweets are 100% unacceptable. </p>
<p>So why can’t high school kids wait for the bus if college kids can wait at the bus, walk across campus, or drive on icy roads to get to campus? </p>
<p>You’re not going to convince me it’s safe for anybody to be outside walking or waiting for a bus when it’s -30. </p>
<p>These are our future doctors, lawyers and govt officials. Nice</p>
<p>Nah, CUPKSDAD…these are our chronic, job-hopping, public benefit consuming, too-good-to-start-at-the-bottom of the ladder, losers. I’m going to believe that to save my sanity. ;-)</p>
<p>This is a big school with thousands of students. It is sad but not surprising that a small number of students are absolute idiots. </p>
<p>But it wasn’t -30, it was 0. Huge difference. I grew up in Wisconsin and we walked to school and it was never closed for cold, and very rarely for snow (I remember 2 days in 10 years). University in our town was never closed in all the years I lived there. Lived in Minn too, and again, never closed, even the morning I woke up and remember the radio announcer saying ‘It’s 29 below and the chill factor is -59’. Not closed. This is extreme cold, but these are also adults who can figure out if they can safely get to class. I’m sure profs would make exceptions for being unable to get there, like my work does for weather (‘get here if you can, otherwise take sick leave or telework’)</p>
<p>It would serve them right if their tweets became part of their virtual “permanent records”. They all should tweet a public apology to the chancellor and their school.</p>
<p>My D’s school did not close during a recent cold snap where the overnight low was -25 degrees and high for the day was 0 degrees, wind chills as low as -50. I texted D to make sure she was okay. I said “HOW do you all manage this?!” She said “we dress accordingly and then go about our business.” She lives 3 blocks from campus and did okay, but I admit I worried. I do know the administration had some kind of hot line set up where you could call for a ride to school. Not sure how it went or if it was utilized. As far as I know, there were no twitter blasts from students castigating the administration using profanity or frequent references to sex organs.</p>
<p>That is one of the differences between college students and K-12 students. One reason our district closed for the day was because many of our students are on rural bus routes. Often kids will not be dressed properly. If a college student doesn’t dress properly for the weather, he will quickly learn to do so. This is very different than a seven year old sent out to wait for a bus improperly dressed and whose parents may have already left for work. We get kids coming to school all the time without mittens, in shorts (!), and no hats. What are their parents thinking?</p>
<p>Sometimes schools have to close because the roads are too dangerous for teachers, profs, etc to drive in. Here in the South many schools/colleges closed because we don’t have snow equipment for the very rare times these things happen. The employees couldn’t get to school, so…no school. </p>
<p>There are school bus routes that would have to go on roads that are too icy to be safe…so when that happens, no school. </p>
<p>In Dallas, if there is a lot of snow, or worse, ICE, everything shuts down because we don’t have the equipment to deal with it, and most drivers don’t know how to drive in/on it. Although I must say, and no respect intended to our neighbors to the north, it doesn’t seem to me that ANYONE knows how to drive very well on ice, particularly on overpasses or at night. In fact, the folks who THINK they can drive on it (and proceed to drive too fast) are usually a major part of the problem.</p>