With temperatures dropping as low as 25 degrees Tuesday night, freezing rain blanketed the Commerce and Greenville area, causing icy road conditions for commuter and on-campus students.
More than 127 school districts in Texas closed Wednesday for a winter storm that stretched as far as the New England area in the northeast part of the United States.
With the threat of dangerous driving conditions, all classes were canceled at A&M-Commerce after 4:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. Freezing rain continued to fall throughout the evening and early morning Wednesday.
Since a large amount of students commute to the University and ice remained on the streets and sidewalks Wednesday, the decision was made at approximately 6 a.m. to delay classes until noon. That decision was shortly changed to classes being canceled for the entire day after further inspection of the roads.
According to the University’s official procedure, during the event of inclement weather, the “executive director of facilities and support services, along with the university chief of police, will advise the president of physical conditions of the Commerce campus and surrounding walkways and roads.”
The president, or person designated by the president, determines the need for closure or delayed openings at the University. For closures on Tuesday and Wednesday, these decisions involved Executive Director of Facilities and Support Services, David McKenna, University Chief of Police, Donna Spinato and Dr. Dan Jones, president of the University.
Spinato passed on Jones’ decision to close the University to Executive Director of Marketing Communications, Randy Jolly, who notified the students, staff and public.
Alerts were also sent out by the University Police Department through the Pride Alert Warning System (PAWS), a mass notification system that students, faculty and staff can sign up for at no charge.
PAWS is capable of voice, email and text message delivery of emergency messages, and is currently the primary method that the A&M-Commerce community is notified of vital, emergency information.
In the event of an unlikely event, such as inclement weather, all participants in PAWS will receive direct notification of the situation along with instructions where they may apply.
Signup for PAWS can be done through the MyLeo portal by selecting Options and then PAWS. This is also the method for unsubscribing. Anyone wanting to be removed immediately should contact Jason_bone@tamu-commerce.edu.
Anyone wanting to find out information concerning A&M-Commerce closures for bad weather can also visit the home page of the University’s Website at www.tamu-commerce.edu, listen to the local radio station 88.9 KETR FM, or call the information telephone line at 903-886-5005.
All organizational events and meetings on campus were canceled for Wednesday and postponed until further notice.