Dripping water, the crunch of snow and a cool breeze were all anyone heard on The University of Alabama’s campus for two days last week, when snow shut down most of the Southeast.

Tuscaloosa and the University received around two inches of snow last Tuesday and Wednesday. That, along with freezing temperatures, forced the University to shut down Wednesday, January 29, and Thursday, January 30. While many students enjoyed the time off to rest and relax, it put just about everyone else on campus – professors, student-teachers and teaching assistants – in a bind.

(See also “Snow accumulation forces University to cancel classes“)

With the cancellation of school for almost three days, teachers are being forced to cram, reschedule and cut things from their syllabuses.

“Some teachers canceled assignments, but I have other professors that actually added assignments during the snow day cancellations,” Emily Bryant, a sophomore majoring in elementary education, said. “One professor even emailed us and said that he encouraged us to work ahead of the schedule during the days off.”

“The University does not reschedule classes or make up days of school when classes are canceled due to the weather,” Cathy Andreen, director of media relations, said. “Each professor determines how to cover the material for his or her classes. The dates of spring break, final exams and commencement will not be impacted by the snow.”

(See also “University protocols need reevalution after snow“)

With the University not touching any major dates in the spring semester, the responsibility for schedule adjustment falls on professors and teachers around campus.

Bill Gerdes, a professor of journalism, teaches two classes and said the days off due to the snow did not hinder his class schedule.

“Since both my classes meet once a week and both are lengthy, I think we can adjust fairly easily,” Gerdes said. “I did have to change both the schedule and syllabus for both of my classes, though.”

Eric Harper, a senior majoring in management and information systems, said most of his professors just moved everything back.

“We’ve had to push back all our assignments to have more time to do them,” Harper said. “Nothing could be done about our tests, so we’ve had to find a way to go over the lectures in class sooner for the test.”

With many assignments being pushed back, more work being put on students and less time to get the work done, some students are wondering if it was worth canceling school for almost three full days.

Harper said that he enjoyed the break even though he had online work still due for his classes.

“It gave me a much-needed rest to catch up on some work,” he said.

Ann Bourne, a media specialist in the William E. Winters Reading Room, noticed an unusual amount of students in the study area last Friday.

“We were not overwhelmed, but we had students working and meeting here all day long,” Bourne said.

She also mentioned that she had spoken with a couple of colleagues who mentioned that they were going to have to change things around during their classes.

“Dr. [William] Gonzenbach [professor in the advertising and public relations department] and I spoke briefly about the weather-related closing, and we discussed how the Thursday closing caught us by surprise,” Bourne said. “He mentioned making a necessary change to the syllabus for one class.”

(See also “Snow, ice shut down Alabama“)