You wake up. It's snowing outside. Your first instinct
is to roll over, flip on the radio and find out if Johns
Hopkins is closed for the day.
Don't do it.
We recommend that you roll the other way and pick up
the phone instead. Or get out of bed completely (you're
gonna have to eventually!) and check the Web.
The fastest and most accurate source for Johns Hopkins
snow closings and other weather emergency information at
the university is the weather emergency phone line. Call
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 what
you'd already guessed: The university is open. 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. In fact, the oncology clinics never close,
even in the worst weather emergency.
All 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 time
to provide all the relevant Johns Hopkins information. And
since they must compress their Johns Hopkins reports so
much, down to just a few words, broadcast information can
be misleading. Frankly, it can also be just plain wrong.
When you call the weather emergency line, you get all
the available details. You don't have to wait for it,
either. There's no need to waste minutes watching the crawl
at the bottom of your TV screen or endure a radio
announcer's litany of school after school after school.
When you call, the latest Johns Hopkins 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 and the Web page is
posted. 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, both the line and the
Web page are updated frequently with new information.
University policy on weather-related closings is also
online, at
hrnt.jhu.edu/elr/pol-man/section.cfm?id=35.
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.
The hospital's weather emergency policy is also
online, at
www.insidehopkinsmedicine.org/operations_integration/
OPS/weather.cfm.
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