Illinois State students confused by unclear message about class attendance in winter conditions

NORMAL – Tuesday morning, all Illinois State University students and faculty received an emergency alert concerning the safety of students with the presence of ice on campus.

Emergency Management alerted the campus of the safety precaution and cancelled all activities and classes before 10 am. However, some professors made their classes mandatory despite the emergency alert.

These conflicting statements left many students confused, due to the fact there was no clear policy for students to follow.  

Eric Hodges from Emergency Management explained that emergency alerts are very rare for the campus and occur in a timely fashion. Hodges said future statements will be clear and concise for students. Furthermore, due to this incident not having a straightforward procedure for students to follow, a new and clear message will be created.

After the large confusion caused by conflicting statements, many students did not know who to reach out to.

Magalie Baker from Student Government Association (SGA) said that SGA encourages students faced with this situation to reach out to professors, peers or department heads during emergency situations such as this one or other class cancellations.

Maritza Navar-Lopez contributed to this story.