Purdue suspends classes, operations for remainder of Wednesday

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue officials announced that all university operations and classes for the remainder of Wednesday (Feb. 5) have been suspended and non-essential personnel are not required to report for campus duty.

Normal operations will resume at 6 a.m. Thursday (Feb. 6). All employees should return to work for their scheduled shift, and classes will resume as well. Students are encouraged to watch for messages from their instructors regarding the status of individual class sessions on Thursday.

Campus roads, sidewalks and parking lots have been cleared and are in adequate condition. Carol Shelby, senior director for environmental health and public safety, said the primary factor in the decision to cancel classes and non-essential campus operations was concern for the safety of students, faculty and staff living off campus.

An assessment of road conditions in West Lafayette and outlying areas by Purdue's Office of Environmental Heath and Public Safety in consultation with Tippecanoe County emergency management officials led to concerns about conditions for those commuting to campus. Shelby said that, among those concerns, were reports of I-65 closures in three locations: two areas in White and Newton counties to the north and one area to the south near Indianapolis.

People who have questions about individual events scheduled to take place on campus should check television and radio listings or with the event's organizer.

Some personnel are required to stay on campus for all or part of the duration of the snow recess to maintain the university's essential operations. Those essential personnel are determined by individual departments. They would include, but are not limited to, key personnel in the residence halls, student health care center, foods stores, physical facilities, Memorial Union and transportation services.

Once the university returns to normal status, employees who determine that their individual situation makes travel to work unsafe are reminded they can use paid or unpaid leave if they are unable to report for campus duty, however, they should contact their supervisors as soon as possible.

Those driving on area roads can monitor their county travel status by going online to http://www.in.gov/dhs/traveladvisory/. The Indiana State Police also has tips for driving in winter weather conditions online at https://local.nixle.com/alert/5138596/?sub_id=85620.

Source: Carol Shelby, cshelby@purdue.edu