More pictures of the snowfall.
If snow days on the last day of school are things kids only dream about, almost 10,000 kids at heart are having their greatest fancies fulfilled today.
Several inches of heavy snow fell Wednesday on the Gothic Wonderland and in the Triangle, prompting University officials to postpone today's classes until Friday and students to gather and frolic on the East and West campus quadrangles to delight in the uncommonly early and plentiful sign of Old Man Winter.
The snow began falling as afternoon classes let out. Buses encountered slick conditions, skidding off the road and getting stuck in the quickly accumulating powder. The transportation problems and the prospect of further dangerous precipitation today convinced administrators to postpone classes.
"It's supposed to be very icy in the morning," said Provost Peter Lange. "We did not want to put that many faculty and staff on the road as well as students who live off-campus. We had a very attractive option in Friday."
Final exams will still begin Monday, Dean of Trinity College Robert Thompson said, as he stood at the West Campus bus stop, helping direct students with busing problems. The decision essentially made Thursday the traditional reading day.
Students expressed mixed reaction to the decision-mostly depending upon how it impacted due dates of their exams and papers.
"I don't think that it much matters," junior Chad Leister said. "No one has much class tomorrow anyway. If anything, you're just turning in [papers]. Most people at this point are just studying for finals."
Sophomore Caitlin Colvard wasn't so indifferent.
"I'm pissed! I don't want to have [biology] lab Friday night!" she said.
Students hoping to ride buses back to East, West and Central campuses met little success. One bus got stuck on Anderson Street, causing traffic problems on Central Campus and Campus Drive.
All other buses were grounded, Thompson said. He instructed waiting students to walk home-a much faster option than buses.
"I'm from the South. I can't handle walking back a mile in the snow," said freshman Esther Houseman, a Whiteville, N.C., native. "This is the first snow I've seen in two years."
Bus driver Willie Graham said it took him more than an hour to make it from Chapel Hill to Duke in one of the Robertson Scholars' buses.
"The roads are real bad. I don't think these buses are going to be able to make it back to [the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]," Graham said. "These buses are spinning out there; I was spinning coming up [Chapel Drive]. It's unsafe, believe me."
Because of the worsening conditions, the University sent all non-essential employees home at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
"Warnings from the National Weather Service and the state patrol said that this looked serious and might get much worse after dark, so we wanted employees to have a chance to get home before dark," Executive Vice President Tallman Trask wrote in an e-mail, noting that it took him two and a half hours to get home, only 16 miles away.
Campus dining services except for the Oak Room remained open, and some employees were expected to arrive today as early as 4 a.m. to make sure breakfast went off without a hitch, said Director of Dining Services Jim Wulforst.
Duke University Hospital officials reported no problems.
Duke Student Government canceled its meeting, as did other student organizations.
Out on the quads, as the Chapel bells tolled "Let it Snow," students snapped photographs of a white-blanketed campus, threw snowballs and started Lambeau Field-like football games.
Sophomores Dan Landau and Colleen Torke used the several inches of powder to build a snowman on Chapel Quad.
"It's great to have snow at the end of the semester when everything is wrapping up. It's a great stress relief from the exams," Landau said.
Torke agreed: "You can be a little kid and you don't have to worry about all the exams that are going to be next week."
Kevin Lees contributed to this story.
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