Yes, it's true that your favorite TV or radio station
reports weather-related closings of local colleges and
universities.
And it's true that Johns Hopkins reports its closings
to those stations.
We suggest that you ignore them entirely.
Your fastest and most accurate source for Johns
Hopkins snow closings and other weather emergency
information at the university is the weather emergency
phone line. It's 410-516-7781 or, from areas where
Baltimore is a long-distance call, 800-548-9004.
The same information is also posted online at
webapps.jhu.edu/emergencynotices.
Chances are that, on any given snowy day, calling the
hot line or checking the Web page 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 late
opening or 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).
All that information — and much more, about snow
day shuttle bus schedules, Peabody Prep, evening classes
and library and rec center operations — will be
posted on the phone line and the Web site.
Radio and TV stations, which deal with closing
announcements for scores of institutions, do not have the
time to provide all the relevant information from Johns
Hopkins. And since they must compress their Johns Hopkins
reports so much, down to just a few words, the information
you receive over the air can be misleading or, frankly,
just plain wrong.
When you call the weather emergency line, there's no
waiting. You don't have to wait for radio announcers to get
through a long list of other institutions or waste minutes
watching the crawl at the bottom of your TV screen. When
you call, the latest information is there.
And it's there immediately. As soon as the university
decides what to do during a snowstorm, 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.
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/
operations_integration/OPS/weather.cfm.