Anatomy of a snow day

As snow began to fall Tuesday afternoon, students took to social media begging Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta to cancel classes—and berating him when he did not. Wednesday evening, the reaction was the opposite, as students praised Moneta for Thursday's snow day.

But though Moneta is responsible for communicating the news of canceled classes to students, he is not responsible for canceling classes himself.

That decision falls to Provost Sally Kornbluth, who makes one choice for all 10 of the University's schools.

The choice to cancel classes is separate from the University's decision to enact the Severe Weather and Emergency Conditions policy, said Vice President of Administration Kyle Cavanaugh. The severe weather policy requires all essential operations to remain open, but allows for the closure or cancellation of all others.

"There's a number of different scenarios where they run in parallel," Cavanaugh said of the severe weather policy and the cancellation of classes.