Campus · December 9, 2025
Fourteen Inches of Snow Close Campus for the First Full Day Since 2023
Classes were canceled Tuesday after an overnight storm; dining, the library and the residence halls stayed open, and Facilities had every walk cleared by 3 p.m.
UW–Porter Falls canceled all on-campus classes on Tuesday, December 9, after 14.5 inches of snow fell overnight, according to the campus weather station on the roof of the Jarvis Technology Center. It was the first full weather closing since February 2023. Most winters get a delayed start or nothing at all.
The decision went out by campus email, the homepage banner and PorterAlert texts at 5:22 a.m., after a 4:45 a.m. call between the vice chancellor for operations, Facilities, Campus Safety and the Porter County highway department. By then the county had pulled its plows off secondary roads, and the regional coach to Lake City had canceled its first two runs.
What stayed open:
- All residence halls, with front desks staffed as usual.
- The Forge and Founders Union, on weekend hours. Dining staff who live within walking distance covered shifts for those who could not get in.
- Halvorsen Library, from 10 a.m.
- Forge Recreation Center, from noon, where the sledding hill behind it was the busiest place on campus by early afternoon.
Facilities crews started at 1 a.m. and had 9.2 miles of sidewalk, every building entrance and all 31 accessible parking spaces cleared by 3 p.m. Lots were done by evening.
“We had eleven people and six machines out all night. The snow was the heavy wet kind that breaks shear pins, and we broke four. Everyone got home by supper.”
— Duane Kolsrud, Director of Facilities
Classes resumed on a normal schedule Wednesday. The closing fell in the last full week of classes before finals, so the Provost’s Office has asked faculty to adjust Tuesday deadlines rather than add makeup sessions. Final exams are unchanged.
How closing decisions are made is described on the weather closings page. Students who have not signed up for text alerts can do that through emergency notification sign-up. Students living off campus should check the city’s alternate-side rules and the campus winter parking rules before the next storm. One is forecast for Saturday.
Contact: Office of University Communications, news@uwporterfalls.edu
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. This storm, the closing and every snowfall total, crew size and quote here are invented; check your own campus for real closures.