Weather Closings and Delay Information

Weather Closings and Delay Information

Student support essential services (including, but not limited to, Campus Safety, Student Life on-call staff, the post office, and Dining Services) will remain open during weather closures. Hours and service level changes may apply, and these changes will be communicated the day of closure.

Find out about weather closings and delays by doing one of the following:

  1. Check your Hampshire email and the intranet. An “important announcement” will be sent with detailed closure information and posted on the intranet for the duration of the closure.
  2. Check the Hampshire website. A banner will display at the top of the website when a closure or delay is in effect.
  3. Check your phone for a text or voicemail from the emergency notification system, if you've entered your numbers via The Hub. Enrollment is strongly recommended for all faculty, staff, and students; use of the alert system is intentionally minimized, and you may remove your number from alerts at any time. Detailed instruction on signing up for emergency alerts are available here: https://intranet.hampshire.edu/news-events/sign- up-for-emergency-notifications
  4. Call the Hampshire College hotline: 413.559.5508.

During inclement weather, the Senior Leadership Team, in close coordination with the Director of Facilities or designee, will decide about closing or delaying the opening of the College. This decision is based on weather forecasts and the conditions of parking lots, paths, and roads on campus, and will be made, when feasible, by 6:30 a.m. The highest priority of the Senior Leadership Team will continue to be the safety of the campus community, and the area leaders will develop plans to minimize the impact of closures on their operations.

When the College is delayed or closed due to weather or other emergency, all employees, other than essential personnel, are asked to refrain from being on campus, for their own safety and to not impede the work of our Facilities snow removal  team. Facilities and Campus Safety staff are fully empowered to ask non-essential personnel and visitors to leave during campus closures.

Employees are encouraged to use their judgment when making decisions about safety and travel conditions. Staff should notify their supervisor if they are unable to get to work or unable to complete their scheduled work day.

Essential workers and resident students and staff are asked to park personal vehicles close together to enable plows to efficiently clear as many parking spaces as possible. For large volume snow events, an announcement may be put out after the College is re-opened to move vehicles in order to fully clear the lots of accumulated ice and snow. Vehicles should not be stored or left unattended on campus during the winter; designated winter parking is available in the Enfield lot for students leaving their vehicles during the intersession. Personal vehicles should be left in the Enfield lot a continuous row in the single row of spaces adjoining the woods.

FIVE COLLEGE INFORMATION

Hampshire College is part of the Five College Consortium, and recognizes that member schools may make different decisions about inclement weather closures. The Director of Facilities will share any decisions made by the other colleges in the “Important Announcement” sent via email and posted on the intranet. Students, faculty, and staff who visit other colleges are encouraged to verify operational information before leaving. Hampshire College strongly prioritizes keeping public transportation routes open during inclement weather, but service changes may occur, check: http://www.pvta.com/weatherTravel.php before setting out.

As well as the individual college websites, the following sources of information may be useful:

Five College Hotlines
Hampshire: 413.559.5508
UMass: 413.545.3630
Amherst: 413.542.7669
Mount Holyoke: 413.538.2330
Smith: 413.585.4636

Television (station and Five College participation may vary; not recommended as a primary source of information):

WWLP TV 22
Multiple TV stations via WesternMassNews.com