When I was there, we called it the University of No Holidays.

Now, don't get me wrong-- I'm not saying that was better, it was just the reality. I don't really have a problem with the occasional delay or cancellation on account of bad roads. When it is because of glorified flurries? That's another matter. That said, yesterday was a legitimate mess of a morning.

All this is to say I find it refreshing that Christopher D. Clement, vice president for finance and administration at UNH is apologizing for not cancelling classes. According to WMUR.com, he released this statement:

Decisions to cancel or delay classes are complex. Using the best storm modeling we made a 4 a.m. decision today not to cancel or delay classes. The storm's unpredictable nature ultimately proved our decision to be wrong. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused"

This is great on two counts. One, for his owning up to a mistake: how often do we see people, especially those in leadership positions, pass the blame? Imagine hearing your boss or favorite/least favorite politician say "we tried, we got it wrong and we're sorry".

The second count is not defaulting to cancelling at the first sign of snow. Students pay an awful lot of money for classes, so every effort should be made to try to avoid cancellations. We live in New England, cancelling for nothing more than fear of snow isn't really reasonable.

Kudos, Mr. Clement, for trying to make the right call and owning up to getting it wrong.

 

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