This week’s snowfall and freezing rain have Spartans across campus wondering whether the University might cancel classes sometime this week. But Michigan State University’s history suggests there’s a high bar to clear before a snow day can happen.

This week’s snowfall and freezing rain have Spartans across campus wondering whether the University might cancel classes sometime this week. But Michigan State University’s history suggests there’s a high bar to clear before a snow day can happen.

The University has only canceled classes due to inclement winter weather six times for a total of eight days, including two half-day cancellations.

Beaumont Tower stands tall on a winter morning.

Photo via MSU Today.

MSU canceled classes for the first time in 1967, 112 years after the University was founded. More than 24 inches of snow allowed students to miss January 26’s evening classes and all of January 27’s. A January 30 State News article said that Spartans “had a running, jumping, leaping and drinking kind of a weekend” due to the cancellation.

On April 3, 1975, then-Executive Vice President Jack Breslin made the call to nix the day’s classes following a bizarre springtime snowstorm. MSU’s Department of Public Safety noted that “the storm caused no major problems, aside from a few large, student-made snowballs that were rolled onto campus streets.”

MSU called two snow days on January 26 and 27, 1978—exactly eleven years after the first cancellations—in the wake of a blizzard that caused then-Governor William Milliken to declare a state of emergency. This marked the first (and so far the only) cancellation of two consecutive full days.

Sixteen years later, then-President M. Peter McPherson said that students could take January 19, 1994 off due to extremely cold weather. He did so following the previous night’s pajama-clad announcement from the steps of the Cowles House that he would consider calling off classes; students had rallied outside the President’s residence chanting, “Hell no, it’s 40 below!” All other University operations stayed open, however.

A heavy snowfall is seen on the banks of the Red Cedar. Photo via MSU Today.

On February 2, 2011, students stayed home from class following a blizzard that brought bitter cold and more than a foot of snow. The seventeen-year gap between this cancellation and the 1994 one broke the record for the longest period between snow days in the University’s history, narrowly beating the sixteen-year period between the 1978 and 1994 incidents.

The most recent closings were in January 2014. Classes were suspended on January 6—the first day of the spring semester—due to a heavy snowstorm and the extremely low temperatures that accompanied it. That evening, MSU announced that all classes scheduled before noon on January 7 were also canceled. MSU later announced that all classes beginning before 5 p.m. were off, though evening classes were still held. Temperatures were so low that the University Physician sent a message to students discouraging students from being outside longer than fifteen minutes and directing them to a frostbite calculator.

While some students, faculty, and staff might think the road conditions warrant a day off, the University’s track record suggests a snow day is unlikely. But don’t give up hope yet; professors are still free to cancel their individual class sessions.

Update | 1/30/19: A brutal winter storm caused the University to call off classes on January 30 and 31. Students received the news on Tuesday; later that day, an update went out saying that only critical employees would be required to be on campus. On Wednesday, the University nixed Thursday’s operations as well. This is only the second time MSU had two back-to-back full snow days.

This makes seven cancellations for a total of nine days.

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Tyler Silvestri Tyler Silvestri is a third-year law student at MSU who received his bachelor’s degree in Political Theory & Constitutional Democracy from MSU’s James Madison College in 2017. He spent one year as the Assistant Director of ASMSU’s Student Rights Advocates and two years as a Resident Assistant. He is the Chairperson of the University Committee on Academic Governance. He can be reached at Tyler@onthebanksmsu.com. See author's posts