After a preliminary e-mail sent Tuesday evening, College President James Wright confirmed the closing of the College in a second e-mail early Wednesday morning. He said that only essential College employees were required to report to work, but only if they could do so safely.
"Even these employees should use their best judgment and think about their own safety as they make the decision to travel to work," Wright said.
Essential workers include those in the Office of Residential Life, Dartmouth Dining Services, Facilities Operations and Management and Safety and Security, because they are some core functions that have to be kept operational, College spokesman Roland Adams said. Individual departments were responsible for attaining and maintaining the correct number of employees.
Dean of Residential Life Marty Redman said that the snowstorm resulted in the closing of Cafe North and the Pavilion, along with the decision to close Collis Late Night due to staffing issues. The staff from Cafe North was reassigned to help staff Thayer Dining Hall.
Additionally, Redman said that the dining menu was not as extensive as DDS would have liked and that service was a little slower than usual, but in general he felt that the day proceeded with few problems.
"I think things went really well," Redman said. "[The University of New Hampshire], for example, curtailed their dining operations and only had one open for very limited hours."
He also praised the "forgotten heroes" of the Dartmouth community.
"Most of the faculty didn't have classes and stayed home," Redman said. "But for these [essential employees], serving the campus is their livelihood and they have to be here to do their jobs."
Redman said that he expected dining hall operations to return to normal by lunchtime on Thursday.
Classes were held at the discretion of individual faculty members, resulting in a good portion of class cancellations.
Redman said that some employees could not come in because they had young children who were at home due to closed schools or they were not able to travel on the roads.
He suspects that a large number of Dartmouth students enjoyed their "snow day," as he witnessed students take trays from the dining halls.
Jere Daniell, a retired history professor, was not surprised that the College was closed.
"As employees live further and further away it becomes a different situation," Daniell said.
But Daniell was surprised that so many professors canceled classes. He recalled a time when professors would make sure that they did not live more than 10 miles away to ensure that they could get to campus under all kinds of conditions.
"There was a certain kind of pride with professors -- you never miss a class," Daniell said.
Economics professor Christopher Snyder was one of a few professors who decided to hold class on Wednesday. Snyder said he had to cancel a number of classes earlier in the term because he was out on jury duty and would not be able to catch up if this class was also cancelled.
Snyder said that 90 percent of the students in his class attended Wednesday morning. He attributed the high attendance rate to the fact that it might have been too snowy to go skiing.
"I couldn't believe it," Snyder said "They had nothing better to do."
FO&M's grounds crew and labor crew handle all of the sidewalk clearing while a contractor is responsible for the large parking lots.
"We are set up to deal with any kind of storm any time it happens," said John Gratiot, the associate vice president of FO&M.
Gratiot said that for every blizzard, crews are called in by 4 a.m. every time at least one inch of snow is on the ground.
One of the biggest difficulties of significant snowstorms, Gratiot said, is making sure that the workers do not become exhausted before their job is done. Many workers who had been present since 4 a.m. Wednesday morning worked until 6 p.m. that evening, when they were then given a dinner break at Thayer Dining Hall. They planned to continue working through the night.
Workers who live a considerable distance from the College were provided with rooms at the Hanover Inn where they are expected to sleep for 3 to 4 hours before continuing to plow at 4 a.m.
"A storm like this we operate on the basis of we keep working until people tire out," Gratiot said.
For staff members who work for the grounds and labor crew, Gratiot said, this schedule is not a surprise.
"You might have a day or two where you work more hours than you are at home, " Gratiot said. In another measure to deal with the snowstorm, FO&M has precautions in place if a power outage were to occur.
"Realistically during a sunny afternoon the power could go," Gatriot said. "All it takes is a squirrel going across a powerline."
