Today marks the third time this academic year that the University of Toronto’s St. George Campus has cancelled classes due to weather conditions. Typically, this would come as a joy and relief to many students — were it not for the fact that UTSG’s policy around closing campus in severe weather is an absolute joke.

Let me begin by saying this: this piece, nor any UTSG student’s feelings around this issue, are bred from jealousy. This is not a “hey, UTM and UTS have a snow day! I want one too! This isn’t fair, I wanna have the day off of school!”

Rather: students are furious because the institution to which they pay hundreds of thousands of dollars has made it perfectly clear that the University does not care about their safety or wellbeing. Why is this? We’ll get to that answer a little later. For now, let me open a discussion of why I, and a majority of UTSG students, are livid about today’s events.

Today’s weather did not come as a surprise to anyone who has access to the internet or to the news — I found out about today’s storm this past Sunday. The snow certainly didn’t come out of nowhere and we were warned days in advance. There were warnings of freezing rain, severely low temperatures, and estimates of 15-20cm of snow predicted for today. We knew this; every school and university in the GTA knew this. And that is why this morning, by 8am, news came pouring in that every school in the GTA was shut down: York, Ryerson, UTM, UTSC, and remarkably, the Toronto District School Board. It’s about as likely for the TDSB to call for a snow day as it is for UTSG — it happens only under extreme conditions.

But, to everyone’s disappointment and no one’s surprise, UTSG remained open. Peering out the window this morning, I was dreading the walk to my 10am class: there was snow blowing everywhere, and the city skyline that is perfectly visible from my bedroom window was entirely obscured. This did not bode well for visibility.

Now, I will admit that I write this article from a certain place of privilege: I live ten minutes from campus, and did not have to endure a rough, arduous, and entirely not-worth-it commute. That being said, UTSG refusing to close poses problems for both Toronto residents and commuters: on one hand, those who walk to campus have to brave unplowed roads, low to no visibility, and the pain of being hit face-first with freezing rain. Even wearing two sweaters, a parka, a hat, a scarf, and mittens, I felt entirely unprepared to be outside in weather conditions I shouldn’t have had any business being in in the first place. On the other hand, commuters had to face the absolute nightmare that is the TTC in inclement weather: packed subways, waiting for streetcars and buses in the snow, and delays that last anywhere from minutes to well over an hour. Those brave commuters who managed to finally make it to my morning classes ended up walking into lecture almost an hour late.

And these are just some of the hurdles faced by able-bodied students. For disabled students with accessibility needs, in wheelchairs, using crutches, and so on, there is absolutely no feasible way to attend classes. For one thing, the sidewalks on campus are poorly shoveled, only visible because students have carved footpaths through the snow. This narrows the usually wide sidewalks into two-lane streets for foot traffic. And then there’s the ice. You know, the ice you can’t see because it’s under all of the snow? The hidden patches that are a lawsuit just waiting to happen? Between the narrowed sidewalks and the low visibility due to the blowing snow, it’s only a matter of time before someone severely injures themselves, or worse.

It is at this point that I would like to remind you of the following: these conditions were deemed unsafe for students by every school in the city, and some others in the GTA. UTM, UTSC, York, and Ryerson all looked at these conditions and said something along the lines of, “we care about the wellbeing of our students enough to not force them to go to classes in this weather.” UTSG, however, did not express such a sentiment.

Here is where a first counterargument arrives: if the weather is so bad, and you feel unsafe going to class, just don’t go. Wow! What a thought! Thanks, Karen, you’re right.

Except that anyone who follows this line of thinking hasn’t been to a class at the University of Toronto. U of T often penalizes lack of attendance, and often even late attendance, and skipping so much as one or two lectures can affect your grade. Not to mention that it’s mid-February: midterm time. If UTSG is still open, that means midterms and term papers are still going on. Ask any U of T student to miss a midterm. Go ahead, do it, I dare you. To a U of T student, there is nothing more terrifying than missing a test or a deadline. We can talk about the culture surrounding this — a culture which is largely the institution’s fault, but that’s a conversation for another time.

Perhaps it was the outcry from students — the angry emails, phone calls, tweets, and social media posts. Perhaps someone in the UTSG admin finally had a moment of clarity, common sense, or even empathy (a miracle, really). Whatever it was, it finally happened at 11:48 am: UTSG decided to close campus due to worsening weather conditions.

Except, they didn’t.

Well, not until 4pm, at least.

Yes, despite being amid a dangerous storm, UTSG decided to close the campus as of 4:00pm.

4:00pm — after commuters were already on (or still on their way to) campus, after a majority of classes had already been held and completed, when the storm is supposed to be continue worsening. This means that UTSG decided to send students home during the worst and most dangerous conditions of the day. The university closing at 4pm is a cruel joke, and no one’s happy about it. This is not to say I’m ungrateful for it: UTSG should be closed today. But this call should have been made hours earlier. UTSG should have looked at the examples other schools were setting and made the obvious decision.

Unfortunately, this is not an unbelievable thing for UTSG to have done: it did, after all, do the same thing last week. Twice. In both cases, classes were cancelled in the mid to late afternoon, after many classes had already been held, after many students had already made their way to campus, and after the weather had not changed whatsoever.

In all three cases of UTSG cancelling classes or closing campus, they lacked one simple thing: forethought. If the weather is bad in the morning, cancel classes in the morning. The weather is not going to get drastically better in the next few hours. Cancelling classes later in the day is a dangerous waste of time.

Today’s cancellation, at least, came with warning well in advance. As many commuters will remember last week, UTSG sent out the call that the university would be closing… five minutes before it did. Meaning, everybody was already on campus, sitting in their lecture halls, having braved the weather, only for UTSG to cancel classes that were scheduled to begin five minutes later.

But really, having a four-hour warning seems like a petty joke. Oh, you all whined when we gave you five minutes of warning. Is four hours enough instead?

Now, let’s talk about professors for a moment. It is, in no way, the responsibility of the professors to ensure that students get to and from their lectures efficiently and safely. That being said, there were a few saints who elected to cancel their classes (well in advance, too). While some professors thought the weather was too dangerous for students, and others couldn’t even bear the weather themselves, some were put in a very difficult situation: with the TDSB closed, some professors couldn’t teach their lectures because they had to stay home with their children. And this, I imagine, was a difficult situation for any UTSG students with children as well. In my opinion, there should be a general rule that if the TDSB is closed, UTSG should be, too. But that would just be too easy, wouldn’t it?

So, after all of this, why does UTSG regularly insist on, one, keeping the campus open when it is very obvious that it shouldn’t be, and two, closing the campus so late in the day that it has little to no effect on students at all? The answer? You guessed it, folks —money.

Welcome to the institution where, if the campus stays open past 3pm, rumour has it that the university gets its operational funding. Imagine, U of T caring more about money than the safety of its students.

Really not that surprising, is it?

Regardless, the decision to consistently close campus too late in the day reflects very poorly on the university. In doing this, UTSG is telling its students that their safety doesn’t matter, that consideration for students who cannot make it to classes because of accessibility issues, parenthood, or other personal circumstances aren’t worth the money they make by keeping the university open. Education is important, yes — but it is never more important than anyone’s safety.

This is something that the University of Toronto has yet to grasp.