Four Snow Days for Professors: A Recap

Before the Provost announced Mason's plans to make-up the four full days of classes canceled last week, professors spent their snow days updating students about changes in assignments and due dates. But like students, they also had fun.
(Photo courtesy of Mason professor Susan Lawrence)

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[Editor's Note: The following piece was to be originally published last Thursday, before difficulties with the Student Media server began. It has since been updated, and additional anecdotes on and pictures of the snow days submitted by Mason faculty have been included below.]

Massive snow accumulation in the last week left many students reveling in the spontaneous winter break they’ve received. Professors, however, were coping with the break in a different way — by amending syllabi, assigning make-up work and trying to make up for lost time.

The Provost announced George Mason University’s makeup class plan and unveiled the new final exam schedule to students, faculty and staff via e-mail last Friday. But until that decision was announced, professors kept lines of communication open with their students, largely through e-mail.

Journalism professor Steve Klein says he was prompt with letting his students know how he plans to change the pace of the class once the snow had cleared.

Klein laid out his plan through detailed e-mails to his students, highlighting specific deadlines for new assignments to take place instead of class attendance.

“All my classes have set deadlines for assignments,” said Klein.  “I expect students to stay on top of their deadlines. I teach journalism. Journalism has deadlines. If I’ve written one e-mail this week, I’ve probably written 100. I am trying to keep my students involved and engaged. I hope they’re shoveling snow, making snow-persons and staying safe. I can’t imagine that we’ll return to campus this week.”

Klein wasn’t the only professor using the online platform to have students make up work.

English professor Miruna Stanica’s class missed an entire week, right in the middle of reading Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. To account for the lack of class, Stanica assigned students to read a PowerPoint presentation she put together and answer questions posted on BlackBoard.

“When we had only missed one class, it made sense to me to use Blackboard to circulate a PowerPoint and to collect student work, since that’s a technology that’s already in place and students are familiar with,” said Stanica last Wednesday. “But now that we’re up to three missed classes, I’m hoping there will be a university-wide policy on rescheduling missed classes, and we can actually meet face to face. Blackboard can only go so far as a substitute.”

Other professors, like WGMU radio adviser Rodger Smith, had no due assignments in the classes they taught last week, so getting back on track may not be as difficult. But Smith, who commutes from Linden, Va. nearly seven hours away, had a different snow experience.

“I’ve not suffered cabin fever and I haven’t been snowbound,” said Smith.    “I’ve had plenty of work for classes, the Department of Communication and WGMU to do at my computer. I’ve had more time to go to the gym and exercise, believe it or not, and my wife and I spent eight hours from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon shoveling snow to clear our driveway.”

Others, like English professor Mark Sample, who commutes from North Carolina, decided on Tuesday that he wasn’t going to making the trek back up to Va.

“I haven’t made major adjustments to my syllabi yet; I’m waiting to see if the university extends the semester by a day or two. If extra days aren’t added to the semester, it won’t be too much of a problem for my graduate class; we’ll simply squeeze in two day’s worth of material during one class,” said Sample last week.
 

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Linguistics professor Corrine McCarthy enjoyed the wildlife. A picture of two Carolina Wrens outside her home is posted below.

"I have been doing a lot of backyard bird watching. I have three feeders set up: two with suet, one with sunflower seeds. I am attaching three nice bird pictures. They are of Carolina Wrens, a
White-breasted Nuthatch, and a Red-bellied Woodpecker. Today, and the rest of this weekend, I am participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count: www.birdcount.org. Yes, I am a bird nerd! I'm also doing a lot of staring at my pets, baking bread, and shoveling (duh!)."

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Robinson Professor of International Studies John Paden spent a little time watching T.V. when his plans were canceled:

"My week has been largely on hold, since we didn'tknow from day to day whether the university and/or the U.S. government would be open or closed. (I was scheduled to give a lecture yesterday at the State Department on 'Islam in Nigeria,' but obviously thatwas cancelled. Today, I was supposed to meet with a former president of Nigeria, but that too got snowed out.) Other than that, I have been reading doctoral dissertations, and getting caught up on other readings, mainly on China.

Fortunately, we have power, so I have been able to follow international news on TV, including the different perspectives represented by Nigerian TV, Russian TV, Chinese TV, Qatar TV, French TV, and South African TV. (Not to mention CNN international...)

Obviously, this preoccupation with news is a symptom of 'cabin fever.' (Our side street has not been plowed, so my wife and I are house bound. Our Polish sheepdog is wondering what's happening with his usual walk and why the piles of snow are well above his head!)

Needless to say, I look forward to getting back to teaching next week."

Later that day, Professor Paden sent an addendum.

"I did watch the basketball game between Mason and VCU the other night, (on TV.)
Very exciting! (As you may know, Mason won in overtime.)
All this TV preoccupation, clearly an advanced case of 'cabin fever..."

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History professor Michael Bottoms, who is on leave this semester, described his 'cabin fever' that resulted from a lack of snow removal near his home. He submitted this picture of his street at night.

"I've been sitting at home reading and writing and slowly losing my mind.

We've been basically trapped in my neighborhood for about a week now.  On Monday a snow plow made a brief appearance, but it got stuck in drifts at the end of the block and we had to walk down and dig the poor guy out.  Many of the best roads out of the neighborhood are blocked by cars that got stuck and then were abandoned."

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Mathematical sciences instructor Patricia Granfield said she acted as if it was any other free time.

"I ended up working most of early January to get ready for classes, so true confessions:  I have done all the stuff I would normally have done in my free time.  I have baked bread, made soup, and done a lot of sewing.  And caught up on TV:  Damages (a fabulous legal series with Glenn Close), Big Love, and an English series, Foyle's War (detective series set in the early days of World War II--some of the best tv I have ever seen.)  And I've answered at least 50 emails from students with homework questions, so I haven't been totally remiss."