How Carleton College is handling the cold — with classes
In researching my list of Minnesota college campuses that are closed today because of the deep freeze, I noticed that Carleton College was going ahead with its first day of the session.
On Twitter it sent out the photo above with the remark:
Yes, it's cold. Yes, we're holding classes.
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I asked campus spokesman Eric Sieger why Carleton was plunging ahead even as campuses still on break were shutting down.
He replied:
Since we are a residential campus and a majority of our students are from out of state, they planned to be here on campus for the start of classes today. We communicated with students about the weather and encouraged them to take appropriate precautions.
It sounds like it's cutting students a little slack:
The College also asked faculty members to be flexible in regards to class attendance issues due to the weather, both in terms of the extreme cold and travel delays in arriving on campus due to the storms in other parts of the Midwest and eastern US.
Absences due to weather won't affect students' standing in the class or their position on wait lists.