If you woke up to the first snowstorm of the season
wondering whether you should haul out your boots or go back
to sleep, here's the phone number you should have on your
bedside table: 410-516-7781, or, in areas where Baltimore
is a long-distance call, 800-548-9004.
Those phone numbers connect to the weather emergency
hot line, which the university uses to announce if bad
weather has forced the university to close, open late or
cancel any classes.
Chances are that the hot line will just confirm that
the university is open on a normal schedule. Johns Hopkins
policy is to remain open whenever possible, both because so
many employees and students are involved in patient care
and because minimizing interruption of teaching and
research is a priority.
Even on those rare occasions when there is a closure,
outpatient clinical services usually remain open. Required
attendance employees in nonclinical departments of the
university also have to get to work (check with your
supervisor if you are not sure whether you are a required
attendance employee).
Many students, faculty and staff are accustomed, on
snowy days, to listening to the radio or watching
television for information on the university's status.
Here's why calling the weather emergency line is better:
There's no waiting. You don't have to listen to
announcers go through a long list of other institutions or
watch words crawl across the bottom of your TV screen.
Immediacy. As soon as the university decides what to
do, the weather emergency line message is recorded. That
usually occurs by 6 a.m. after an overnight storm.
Decisions on part-time evening classes are usually made by
1 p.m. During major storms, the line is updated frequently
with new information on library hours, shuttle service,
evening classes, Peabody Prep classes, etc.
Completeness and accuracy. In a weather emergency,
Johns Hopkins has a lot of information to convey to
students, faculty and staff all over the
Baltimore-Washington area. Broadcasters have time to
mention only the bare minimum, and sometimes they get even
that wrong.
Information posted on the phone line also is available
on the Web. From the home page at
http://www.jhu.edu, click on "Today@JHU" and then click
on "JHU Emergency Information and Weather Alerts."
University policy on weather-related closings is also
online, at
www.jhu.edu/~hr1/pol-man/appdxj.htm.
The sections on the Required Attendance Plan, Liberal
Leave Plan and Delayed Arrival Plan explain what happens if
those options are invoked by the university.
Johns Hopkins Hospital's weather emergency policy is
also online, at
www.insidehopkinsmedicine.org/
weather_hopkinsink_03.pdf.
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