During the snowstorm, students walked to Paresky Commons, the only open campus building that day
Blizzard-like conditions brought by a winter storm caused the cancellation of in-person classes on Monday for the first time since 2015. Teachers provided instruction via Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or asynchronously, while athletics and off-campus events were cancelled for the day, according to Susan Esty, Dean of Students.
In an email sent to the campus community on Sunday, Esty outlined several other changes, including barring day students from traveling to campus and closing the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library (OWHL) and all athletic facilities for the day. In coordinating the response, a campus ‘Storm Team’ comprising administrators across several departments—including Facilities, Campus Safety, and Human Resources—had convened Sunday morning, according to Caroline Odden, Dean of Studies.
For Paul Murphy, Instructor in Mathematics, the decision to cancel classes made sense given the storm’s circumstances. He noted that such a cancellation remained uncommon, considering Andover’s residential nature.
“Usually, we don’t take time off for bad weather, even with a lot of snow. We’ve definitely had days when the town of Andover canceled school but we did not… We’re essentially a small town on the hill, and everyone is in high school, so getting to class normally isn’t difficult. But this felt like one of those storms where we might consider not having classes because of the timing and the winds. Not that it was dangerous to walk around, but it [became] difficult to get around,” said Murphy.
Odden elaborated on the school’s policy for weather-related events. She explained that Monday’s decision was an exception to their default response rather than a rule.
“As a boarding school, we have many community members living on campus and a school year that is already short compared to many other schools. Therefore, our default is not to cancel classes for weather-related events. In this particular case, the scale and timing of the storm seemed to warrant the adjustments we made to classes. Every situation is different, so we do not have a standard solution,” wrote Odden in an email to The Phillipian.
Andover’s reluctance to cancel classes due to inclement weather meant that many students were caught off guard when the full scope of the storm became clear. Robert Budzinski ’26 described his reaction upon reading Esty’s email.
“I’ve been at the school for four years, and they’ve never canceled. They almost had to during the last snowstorm, but then they called a Head of School Day instead. I thought they might just do another Head of School Day or not cancel at all,” said Budzinski.
The closure of certain buildings on campus was also unexpected for students. Allegra Lee ’27 recounted heading outside during the storm only to encounter a change in her plans.
“I wasn’t anticipating any of the buildings to shut down, and actually I remember even when the snowstorm was happening, I went outside still, because I had to go to [Paresky Commons] to eat food, and obviously that was open, but I also thought, ‘Oh, maybe the Borden gym will be open,’ but I went, and everything was locked,” said Lee.
With the campus largely inaccessible, students navigated the day on their own terms. Lee noted a positive moment in the day despite the storm.
“Me and my friends did a call, and we were able to play some online games. We just played the Google Doodle ghost game and also the Spanish bingo card game on Google Doodle. It ended up being pretty fun, even though it was kind of tiring too,” said Lee.
Hannah Jung ’28 also found an unexpected positive, turning the day into an opportunity to reconnect with friends.
“I was able to spend my evening with a friend in Isham [House]… we had a long common room visitation, ate dinner together, and talked while doing work, which was nice because I hadn’t caught up with her in a long time,” said Jung.
The disruption to academics was managed on a course-by-course basis. Odden described the approaches faculty took to assess the needs of their students.
“Instructors were encouraged to adjust plans in ways that made sense for their courses. Since most assignments are collected through Canvas, it was reasonable for instructors to go ahead and collect those assignments. However, I did hear anecdotally that some instructors extended deadlines. In-class assessments tend to be less common on Mondays, but in cases where they were planned, instructors had to adjust in some way. We left decisions about how to adjust up to instructors, because they know best what makes sense in the context of their courses,” wrote Odden.
Drawing on a similar disruption during this term’s Head of School Day, Jung suggested that the school improve how updates on building availability are communicated to students in the future.
“It would be nice to have a more reliable source of information. Everyone was waiting to see when buildings would be available, and it was unreliable to go to PANet because a lot of students don’t know where to find that information. I had friends checking every 30 minutes. They ended up posting on Instagram, but I know some people who don’t have that social media, and it felt exclusionary. It would be nice next time to notify all students directly if athletic facilities or Falls are open and when they close in situations like that,” said Jung.
