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Two Eastern students walk to class Tuesday morning by Booth Library. Classes were canceled by President Hencken as of 11 a.m. on Tuesday. (Nora Maberry/The Daily Eastern News)

Hencken cancels class

By: Nicole Milstead/Senior Campus Reporter

Posted: 2/13/07

University President Lou Hencken has canceled all classes for today in effect at 11 a.m.

Hencken came to campus at 4 a.m. today to monitor the weather. When he came in he said the weather was not that bad and the sidewalks were just slushy.

As the day went on the temperature started to drop, freezing rain started coming down and the winds were said to increase to 40 mph, Hencken said.

The president makes the ultimate decision to close with the advice of others, said Dan Nadler vice-president for student affairs.

The university is not closed, but all classes are canceled.

At around 9:50 a.m. the administration decided to cancel all classes beginning at or after 11 a.m.

Most Tuesday classes that begin at 9:30 a.m. were already in progress, and the 11 a.m. cancellation time wouldn't affect those classes already in progress, Hencken said.

"Classes are usually only canceled in very very bad weather such as a tornado," Nadler said.

Classes at other locations including Mattoon, Champaign and Danville were canceled because of extreme weather, Nadler said. The Dean of Continuing Education makes the decision to cancel classes based on building closings and the ability of instructors and students to travel to class.

Monday night the university sent an e-mail to every student's available e-mail address informing them that decisions would be posted on the campus Web site. Hencken suggests that students check www.eiu.edu.

All announcements will go through the Web site. It takes more than two hours to send out an e-mail to all the students.

The university has not canceled class since 1978, according to the Daily Eastern News archives. Eastern closed on Feb. 1 1982. President Daniel E. Marvin closed the campus on Sunday after 16 inches of snow.

Other universities, including University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, canceled classes. Illinois State University in Bloomington closed the entire university.

Hencken said he is guessing that classes will be in session tomorrow.

All dining centers are open, and tonight's men's basketball game against SEMO is still on.