Snow Days Affecting Pitt State Teachers

Pittsburg State University professors were faced with a decision when campus closed for three straight days for snow February 18–20: whether to try to move instruction online or cancel classes entirely.

Some teachers decided to move their classes online. Others decided to take the snow day as a break from classwork. 
Mary Judene Nance is a professor in the marketing program at Pittsburg State University. She was one of the professors at Pitt State who decided to take her classwork and put it online. 

“I wanted to stay on target with the syllabus because I didn’t want us to get behind,” Nance said. “I didn’t want to eliminate subjects that I think are important to cover in the class, so I wanted us to continue to move along. So transitioning to online, while it may not have been what maybe a lot of students wanted, personally, I think it was in the best interest of the class to keep us moving forward.”

On the other side of the question stood Dr. Malcolm Jason, a communication professor at Pittsburg State University.  Jason wanted the students to have the snow day experience that he remembers fondly. 

“I chose to basically let them get a break as well,” Jason said. “I know there are lots of different philosophies on it … but this year, I kind of took the philosophy that a snow day is a snow day. And I kind of miss being a kid when a snow day meant you actually didn’t have anything.”

The decisions these professors have made have affected how they will teach their classes going forward. Nance’s classes are still on track, so she does not have to worry about cramming information. The same cannot be said for Jason. 

“I am a week and a half behind, you know,” Jason said. “So, yeah, it has been me catching up—I am behind.”

Because of that, he has had to make changes to how he is going teach his classes for these next couple of weeks. 

“There’s a class where we’re gonna have to be pedal to the metal to get midterm done before spring break,” Jason said. “Because, yeah, I am a week and a half behind.”

While Jason is having to put more effort into his classes moving forward, the students of Nance’s classes had to put in more effort to be able to stay on track and get their work done over the break. In at least one case, that included a student who went out in the snow—which was the reason classes were cancelled in the first place—in order to complete his assignments. 

“One young man went out and bought a webcam, and I felt really bad for that, you know, purposely for the quiz,” Nance said. “Another young man, we were able to work around it and make other arrangements. But I felt really bad for particularly this one young man that he said he got out, had to find another student to take him to Walmart to buy the webcam. And I felt really bad about that.”

No matter the decision that was made, or how the classes were affected because of the campus being closed, both teachers were ready for the snow days to end and get back into the classroom. 

“I think we need that personal connection,” Nance said. “And I think it helps us learn. So yes, I was absolutely ready to come back and see everybody.”

“Yes, absolutely,” Jason said. “I was ready to come back.”