Friday Final Exams Delayed Until 10:30 AM

UPDATED 8:53 a.m. :

Final exams are delayed until 10:30 tomorrow morning, and 7:30 a.m. Friday exams are now schedule for 1:30 p.m. on Sunday in their originally scheduled locations, according to a TechAlert notification sent out to students by the Office of the President and University Counsel Ronald Phillips.

Buses should start running at 9:30 a.m.

According to the Hospitality services website, most dining locations will open at 10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 6 due to the winter weather delays. Hulen/Clement’s All-You-Care-To-Eat , Horn/Knapp’s Smart Choices and Bledsoe/Gordon/Sneed’s Fresh Plate will all open and serve lunch at 11 a.m.

Jeffrey Bunnell investigated how some people on campus feel about the schedule delays.

The bitterly cold weather pattern that swept through the area has delayed final exams on Friday morning, according to sources at the National Weather Service and Texas Tech University’s Office of Communications & Marketing.

“We were concerned that roads wouldn’t be safe to travel on, and hopefully this delay will give time for the city and the county and the state to work the roads to a better condition by 9:30 or 10,” said University Counsel Ronald Phillips.

“We will continue to monitor the weather throughout the day, and if weather conditions deteriorate and road conditions are bad, we will make calls on those finals later in the day, Phillips said.

Steve Cobb, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Lubbock office said delays were determined by the possible amount of overnight snowfall the area receives.

Cobb said travel conditions would be challenging tomorrow and recommended staying in until later in the day.

“It’s probably best for people to limit any travel until about late morning,” Cobb said.

Cobb said Texas Tech makes a decision based on the information that is provided by the National Weather Service, and they are speaking with officials at Tech about this particular cold front that is bringing bitterly cold temperatures and possible snow by Friday morning. Conference calls, meetings, and emails take place days before a single flake falls in Lubbock between Tech and NWS officials to determine the official decision for Texas Tech.

“We brief the folks that are at Tech, and they are the ones that make the decision based on our information, and right now what we’re giving them is the main story throughout the weekend,” Cobb said. “Whether or not classes happen tomorrow or you have a final on Saturday or Sunday or whatever on Monday, it’s still going to be very cold. We’re talking temperatures on Saturday that may not get into the 20s, very cold temperatures expected Saturday. Precipitation-wise, we’re expecting another bout of winter precipitation to move across the area this evening. We could see an inch or two of snow by tomorrow morning, and that would likely cause a delay in some of the early classes.”

Cobb said early morning conditions are likely to be the worst, before roads have melted, and that delays would reduce the amount of traffic on icy roads.

“By delaying the schools, especially the schools across Lubbock that will reduce the traffic during that peak period some,” Cobb said. “But still, the roads are going to be icy throughout the morning until we can get a little heating going.”

Chris Cook, managing director for Tech’s Office of Communications & Marketing, said delays don’t necessarily depend on a certain temperature or amount of snow or ice, but recommendations from several different agencies are considered before any official decisions are made.

“You base it on the information you have at that point, and then you kind of move forward from there,” Cook said.

Cook said the weather delays present a slightly bigger challenge during finals week than ordinary class days, but that Tech does the best it can.

“I think it probably crunches you a little bit, but there’s not anything you can do about it,” Cook said. “You just have to adapt and adjust as best you can.”

According to Fox 34 news reports, Lubbock Independent School District has already announced delays for tomorrow’s classes until 10 am.

Evan Dixon and Abbie Arroyos contributed to this report.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s05kuqS5an4