CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Colleges and universities across North Carolina are preparing for potential winter weather that could disrupt travel, classes and campus operations statewide.
What You Need To Know
- Weather experts predicting possible icy storm conditions across North Carolina this weekend
- Several campuses are sharing their plans to keep students, staff and faculty safer amid the winter conditions
- Some students said they feel safer knowing their learning institutions are taking steps to protect their campus community
UNC Charlotte is closely monitoring the forecast inside its Emergency Operations Center.
Christopher “Chris” Gonyar, the university’s associate vice chancellor for safety and security, said inside the center, UNC Charlotte’s emergency management team prioritizes planning ahead before an extreme weather event arrives.
“In the summer and spring, we’re looking at thunderstorms and tornadoes,” Gonyar said. “During the winter, we’re looking at snow/ice, wintry precipitation. They gather that information, then I’ll come into the Emergency Operations Center [where] they’ll give me an update or brief on what we expect the day to look like.”
UNC Charlotte has enrolled over 32,000 students and operates around the clock.
Gonyar said assessing potential impacts helps guide decisions about classes and events.
“We have to start making decisions about our campus operations before snow and ice start to fall,” Gonyar said.
Gonyar said preparation is key with responding to this weekend’s potential winter storm, stating the emergency management team is planning for what appears to be an “impactful winter weather event.”
“We’re taking a look at what that means for our campus operations. What are we doing about classes on Monday,” Gonyar said.
“UNC Charlotte has continued to grow over the years, so we are a 24/7, 365-day-a-year campus. It may surprise some folks, but we do have a small number of classes that occur on Sunday, and events over the weekend. We’re planning and preparing for how we maintain those operations or do we recommend those things are postponed.”
Many students stay on the campus grounds in residence halls that could be impacted by an ice storm.
“Making sure we have plans in place to continue to provide food and housing for the population that lives on campus,” Gonyar said.
Gonyar said safety remains the top priority when making operational decisions.
“The most important thing to us is the health and safety of the UNC Charlotte community,” Gonyar said. “Every decision we make is guided by that principle.”
“We would much rather err on the side of making a call considering safety and have it be all rain, then waiting on a decision until it’s too late and putting our community in harm’s way because they tried to get on a road to travel to make it to class or we didn’t cancel an event, so they try to get themselves to that event,” Gonyar said. “We always start with safety and security, then we look at operations and how that will be impacted by the decision that we make.”
Associate Vice Chancellor for Safety and Security at UNC Charlotte Christopher Gonyar, upper left, is monitoring the looming storm inside the Emergency Operations Center. (Spectrum News 1/Jennier Roberts)
UNC Charlotte student Xavier Deloach said he is stocking up on essentials and paying close attention to campus updates.
“Grocery shopping, stack up on food, toilet paper, tissues, lots of water,” Deloach said.
The business analytics major said he finds comfort in knowing UNC Charlotte has eyes on the potential ice storm.
“It makes me feel kind of safe they’re taking preparations for everyone,” Deloach said. “Make sure people are not going out here [unnecessarily].”
The university also operates The Dubois Center at UNC Charlotte Center City.
Gonyar said his team is also planning on ways to ensure that uptown community is safe during the expected weather storm.
“They do tend to have a lot of larger events that bring in folks from outside the state or community, so we have to think about those things as well. It’s not necessarily just our thousand acres in Northeast Charlotte,” Gonyar said.
In Union County, Wingate University has been making plans as forecasts raise concerns about freezing rain and sleet.
The campus serves over 3,600 students across two campuses in the Town of Wingate and in Hendersonville.
Associate Vice President of Campus Operations Glenda Bebber said their safety remains top priority for the learning institution.
“We can’t function without taking care of our students,” Bebber said. “They’re our No. 1 priority.”
Bebber said staff and leaders recently held an emergency preparedness meeting to determine next steps for operations in the event conditions worsen.
“We have several members across the campus who participated from academics, to operations, campus safety, academic support, dean of students, athletics, to make sure we can keep our students as safe as possible,” Bebber said.
Bebber said the leaders discussed the best path forward with how many students could be managed safely, in the event a power outage extends beyond a 24-hour period on campus.
“It’s mainly just a safety issue,” Bebber said. “Can we feed students, keep them warm, what access do they have to internet capabilities,” Bebber said.
Wingate has been making several preparations in the event the worst does occur.
Bebber said her team has 4,000 pounds of ice melt on deck to help create clear pathways to key buildings like the W.T. Harris Dining Hall and the Crowder Welcome Center. Those spaces will serve as campus shelters if power is lost.
Glenda Bebber, far left, the associate vice president of campus operations for Wingate University, and Director of Grounds Blake Center are prepping ice melt ahead of the expected winter storm. (Spectrum News 1/Jennifer Roberts)
“Our concern at this point is being able to get it out enough, as well as the temperatures for the ice melt to actually be effective,” Bebber said. “We also have several tons of sand on campus, so if the ice melt isn’t being as effective, we are prepared to put out sand to make a path to W.T. Harris Dining Hall, which we are staging to have students come in, serve food and have a warm place to go.”
Wingate University said “residential facilities do not have generators and will be without power” in the event of an outage event.
“We also have some heaters coming in that also have a generator power. We’re staging those [in shelters] to be able to provide additional heat source, should our students need to leave their residence halls or apartments and come somewhere that will be warmer,” Bebber said.
Grounds crews are also preparing for potential damage from ice.
“We got more of our hard hats for chainsaws,” said Blake Center, director of grounds at Wingate. “We don’t know if there’s going to be any fallen trees on campus because of the ice, so we went ahead and purchased that. All of our equipment is ready to go, depending on what is going to happen over the next 48-72 hours.”
T’Asya Jay is a student athlete at Wingate.
Jay is currently gearing up for possible power outages and travel challenges.
“Making sure everything’s charged, enough food in case power goes out, and I’m not able to go anywhere,” Jay said.
Jay is comforted knowing Wingate Univeristy is taking action ahead of the icy events.
“Makes me feel a lot better because I personally did not know they were going to do that,” Jay said. “Knowing they’re taking the right steps and making sure we’re all safe and protected and covered for the weather this weekend is good to know.”
In a campus community communications, Wingate University confirmed “classes will be remote on Monday for all programs on both campuses.”
The university also stated “students are encouraged to have fresh batteries for flashlights and phone charging backup” and “candles or any open flames are strictly forbidden and should not be used.”
Spectrum News 1 reached out to several additional colleges and universities in the state ahead of the weather events.
In a statement to our news team, UNC-Chapel Hill Strategic Communications Manager Erin Spandorf said the university is “closely monitoring the potential winter storm expected this weekend and assessing what preparations may be needed.”
According to the university, that includes “evaluating possible operating condition changes and taking appropriate steps to mitigate ice and/or snow impacts.”
Livingstone College also released an inclement weather plan, further stating no decisions have been made yet regarding Monday operations.
The college said it will continue to monitor conditions and share updates as they become available.
Livingstone also said safety remains the top priority and outlined plans for campus safety and emergency services, meal services, residence hall support and a warming center if power outages occur. Students, faculty and staff are encouraged to monitor college email and the school’s website for the latest updates.
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