This article has been updated to reflect more current information.
Hillsdale College canceled Wednesday’s classes school-wide due to weather, though campus offices remained open. At the time of print, the administration had also canceled Thursday classes until 1 p.m.
Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn warned students to bundle up in an automated phone call made to students canceling Thursday morning classes.
“The morning classes are canceled, except for the young man who was running across the campus in shorts and a T-shirt, whose identity we are seeking,” Arnn said on the message. “He is to report to my office properly clothed.”
This is the third time classes have been canceled since 1994.The last cancellations were in 2011, according to Public Service Librarian Linda Moore, once for snow and once for ice. Since the blizzard of 1978, the college has called off classes five times.
The high in Hillsdale on Wednesday was minus 13 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
“This is the first cancellation that I know of purely because of temperatures,” said Provost David Whalen in an email to the Collegian. “The last cancellation was, I believe, due to ice and this occurred several years ago.”
Cancellations were first discussed on Monday morning, Whalen said.
The dining hall was open for meals, according to a campus-wide email from Arnn.
“We imagine that students will still go outside — for example, to the dining hall to eat — and we caution them to bundle up and cover every patch of skin on their bodies,” Arnn said. “If you do not have warm clothes, plan to purchase some. This is Michigan.”
Whalen said the campus buildings will still be open, as well.
“Except for classes, it will be business as usual,” he said.
Brock Lutz, director of Health Services, said in a campus-wide email that the Health and Wellness Center would be open for regular operations until noon.
Hillsdale college rarely cancels classes.
Moore said she has seen reports that said 1978 was “the first time in 40 years classes had been canceled.”
“When the college was smaller, sometimes classes would be dismissed for a variety of reasons, one being the death of someone connected to the college, but that hasn’t happened in a very long time,” she said.
Some sports teams also had practice, including the baseball team and swim team, according to their captains.
Students’ reactions to the cancellations have been mixed.
“My plans are to observe my less prudent peers develop frostbite as they celebrate the cancellation of classes by galavanting around in the weather they were complaining about five seconds earlier,” said sophomore Asa Hoffman in a Twitter message.
But others have different plans.
“Plans for tomorrow include a box of wine, cleaning up the house, catching up on freelance design work, watching movies, and reading for English,” senior Zane Miller said in a Twitter message. “Call me boring.”
