The Olympian

Issue date: 1/16/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Jon Miller Walking in a winter wonderland. All three campuses were unexpectedly hit by a snow storm.

Media Credit: Jon Miller There's a storm a comin'. OC Bremerton was silent early Jan. 8, instead of its usual hustle and bustle.

The Olympic College administration was forced to make the difficult decision to close all three campuses on Jan. 8 due to unexpected snowfall, leaving the administration open to some unavoidable criticism.
Safety and Security contacted their department head, Rocky Wallace, early on the morning of Jan. 8 and told him that snow was beginning to accumulate on the Bremerton campus.
Within one hour, Wallace was on the road to the Poulsbo campus to assess the conditions there and by 5 a.m. he was on the phone with OC President Dr. David Mitchell who was in Bellevue for a business meeting.
Mitchell said he made the decision to close the three campuses all day based on the information that he had at the time.
Some people criticized the call to close the campus for evening classes so early on. Professor Phil Schaeffer wrote an email to all OC employees where he said the decision, "did not make sense."
Mitchell said based on the conditions later that day, evening classes probably should have been open.
"I should have made that call," Mitchell said. He added normally the announcement should say, "Check back at 3 p.m. for evening classes," but said there was no error in the process of carrying out the resolution.
"We have a process that serves us well," he said.
Joan Hanten, the executive director for the OC Foundation, posted the announcement on the Web site that morning because Communications Director Jennifer Hayes, who is usually in charge of sending out that message to the public, was not available.
"Our goal is always to have that information at 5 a.m.," Hanten said. According to her and the other staff members who were involved in delivering that announcement, it was on the OC splash page by 6 a.m., although some people were not able to see it.
In response to this problem, Hayes immediately collaborated with Jack Hanson and Dessie Lunsford from Information Technology to make emergency communications more visible on the Web page. The new format will allow users to see any emergency announcements in the middle of the page so they will not have to scroll down to read any changes.
Unfortunately, these adjustments came too late to save half a day of school.
Barbra Martin, vice president of administration, said there was discussion later in the day about whether or not to re-open the campus for evening classes, but it was decided it might be too risky. Even if the school had opened, many students would not have likely shown up.
"When you close for the day, it's pretty difficult to open for the evening," she said, a thought that was echoed by many of her colleagues.
"If we had that to do over again we would have probably done it differently," Hanten said about the call to close the college for the entire day.
But despite minor criticism, most people supported Mitchell's judgment and thanked him for caring about the safety of students and staff. Although some said improvements could be made, many said the current process for deciding to close and communicate with the public works just fine.
Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Rick MacLennan said he knows making the call can be difficult but the process that is being used is sound.
"As far as I know, the procedure we have in place almost always works," MacLennan said. And added, "We are taking steps to push this information out more directly."
He is referring to E2Campus, a service that students and staff will soon be able to subscribe to. When they do, they will be able to automatically receive notice via text, email or other electronic communication of any school closures, delays or emergency notices without having to take the initiative to track the information down themselves.
Hayes said the E2Campus project has been in the works for a while, and the shooting at Virginia Tech last April made it clear how important such a system is. The project will launch at the end of January.
"We're working with the company on the contract," Hayes said, adding that it will cost the school $1 per user or between $1,000 and $2,000 this year.
The service will help the college keep students and staff out of harm's way.
"Decisions have to be made," counselor John Babbo said in an email. "In the case of campus closures, it is a hit or miss decision, but when safety is an issue, thank God a decision is made quickly."

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