This petition is directed towards the administrative staff of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). This petition is in regards to the closing policy notification of this University. Only 34% of undergraduate students attending UMBC live on campus (collegeboard.org). The remaining 66% of undergraduate students, graduate students, staff, professors, administrators, security personnel and all other employees are commuters. They are often required to stay past the time roads remain safe to travel at night, and many times face hazardous conditions and longer commuting times to travel to school with snow and ice on the ground.

This petition is requesting that administrative staff close the college before 7:10-9:40pm once snow begins falling and sticking to the ground, and remain closed until roads are clear in both high traffic and residential areas. We are asking that UMBC follow the example of the US Government, Baltimore City/County public schools and other major universities, including our own satellite campus at Shady Grove, in giving students advanced notice of closing times. We feel that a decision to close should come before midnight if snow is already falling. It is our belief that this university should not put the lives of their commuting students at possible fatal risk when it is obvious, by a declaration of a state of emergency and massive closing of governmental, military and other educational organizations, by staying open past when travel is safe, and refusing to give more advanced notice of school closing.



There have been several reports of students who have had to sleep in Academic buildings or their friends' apartment and dorm floors, due to their vehicles being unable to leave campus because the school had not closed early enough; and many commuter students have been required to decide between sleeping on couches on campus to attend their classes or missing them and receiving detrimental grades. There have been several instances where students have made those hard choices due to the weather and the school’s lack of closing notification the night before only to find out at 4:55am that the school was closed and they were stuck on campus with dubious shelter and no classes to attend. This occurrence is not uncommon for commuting students and this lack of concern for the safety and health of the majority of your students and staff is frankly appalling and egregious.



As it stood at 10pm, there was a coating of snow and ice on the ground, and several cars were unable to traverse the hill on Walker Avenue, leading to them sliding backwards down the hill, unable to leave campus. The US Government, several military forts, all of the local public school systems, WMATA, and nearly all major universities had announced their closing and still UMBC remained open and silent.



Those who have signed this petition are asking the University to reconsider its policy and give their commuting and residential students, staff and professors the common courtesy to give them advance notice of the school's closing and to take their safety seriously. We understand that weather predictions are often wrong, and we are not asking that decisions are made on the drop of a hat. Rather we are asking that when there are several inches of snow and ice already present by midnight the night before, and showing no signs of stopping or slowing that there be room in the policy to give more advanced warning. We understand the need to follow policy and are not blaming anyone for doing their jobs. We are simply asking for a reexamination of our school's policy in severe weather cases such as this one. We greatly appreciate your consideration and hope that this petition reaches the ears of those who can affect change in a positive way.

While we appreciate the university has made an attempt to address our concern within the community email they sent today; we feel that the response given continues to support the exact policy that puts so many of us at risk and does not truly alleviate our concerns.