(Updated) How the blizzard has affected colleges

I've been calling around to see how badly the Winter Warlock hit Minnesota's colleges and universities.

So far I've received these reports:

Hamline University:

We canceled all events and classes Saturday-- so that included finals for the law school, which have been rescheduled, our Row of Honor basketball event, and the Trans-Antarctica Polar Explorer Reunion Event, in which the six explorers who made the 1990 journey across the Antarctic were reuniting for the first time. (And, yes the irony is not lost on us that we had to cancel the polar explorer reunion due to snow.)

We also canceled all athletic events Saturday.

I haven't heard any stories about people stranded or of any damage.

Anoka-Ramsey Community College:

We closed both our Cambridge and Coon Rapids Campuses. The major disruption was for the 300 people planning to take the ACT test at the Coon Rapids Campus. The test will be rescheduled and that information will be posted here: www.actstudent.org

Anoka Technical College

Century College

Hennepin Technical College Minneapolis Community and Technical College

Normandale Community College

All of the above closed their campuses and canceled classes.

St. Olaf:

We canceled one dance event Saturday night (that I know of). Parking on campus is a little tricky today as our crews continue moving snow.

University of St. Thomas:

Like everyone, we’re digging out. We are about to send an e-mail update to everyone to be aware that parking will be tighter than usual because of the snow.  Since this is finals week, we are telling them that they should allow plenty of time to find a parking spot. It didn’t help that two important campus plows broke over the weekend and can’t be used. It wasn’t directly related to the storm, of course, but our campus is grieving over the loss of one of our students who died in a house fire near campus Saturday.

Carleton College:

We're not in session right now (our fall term runs Sept. 13-Nov. 23, and classes don't resume until winter term begins on Jan. 3). ... Our basketball games on Saturday afternoon were postponed, as the men are now going to play Bethany Lutheran on Friday, Dec. 17, while the women's game with Bethel University will revert back to Feb. 14 (it's originally-scheduled date).

Update: The College had allowed the use of some facilities by the community since we aren't in session, but those events were canceled. One was a you choir concert in Skinner Memorial Chapel and another was a youth basketball tournament in our Recreation Center. Custodians were asked to work Sunday to clear the campus for the Community Holiday Party and evening concert. This also gave them a jump on their work for Monday morning before the snow froze hard.

Dennis Easley, our Superintendent of Grounds, said that two grounds workers worked Saturday to prepare for evening events that ended up being canceled. The snow crew worked from 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m Sunday to shovel and plow.

We've already survived one flood this year. Let's hope we don't see anything like that again!

St John's University: No problems reported.

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities:

The university shut down at 1 p.m. on Saturday. Buildings were locked, and nonessential people went home.

We rescheduled two sporting events that were supposed to happen Saturday night – women’s hockey and men’s hockey -- and those games got played on Sunday.

A women’s basketball game that was supposed to happen at noon Sunday was pushed back till 7 p.m.

University of Minnesota - Rochester: No issues reported.

Winona State University:

We held the fall Commencement ceremony Friday (before the storm), so we really squeaked by with that one. The guest speaker for our ceremony was not so lucky, and her Saturday noon flight back to DC was delayed until late afternoon Sunday. Then she had to spend the night in Detroit cecause her connecting flight was delayed. She just got back home this afternoon.

Again, luckily most classes are not taking place right now due to winter break, but we did have two grad level classes over the weekend canceled.

Macalester College:

We cancelled all Saturday events except for the African Music Ensemble.

St. Catherine University:

All sporting events soon were cancelled and even a little later, a decision was made to reschedule the O'Shaughnessy concert event. Our Sunday morning Chapel was cancelled and an Advent Vespers on Sunday night as well. By Monday morning, all of the campus could be reached by motor vehicle or on foot, though some sidewalks and steps needed to be widened and much of the parking area needed clearing to the curbs.

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