When campus closes
A closure or a move to remote instruction follows the city declaring a snow emergency, the county advising against travel, or the physical-plant crew judging that lots and walks cannot be cleared safely by the first class. The decision is made early and pushed through Porter Alert; if you have not opted into the text alerts, do that before winter.
If campus is open but you cannot travel
A student who cannot safely get to campus on a bad-weather day is expected to contact instructors directly; most will excuse the absence and post materials. Essential-personnel designations for staff are in the department continuity plan. Residence hall dining and the library keep reduced hours even on a full closure day.
In and around Porter Falls
Porter Campus Safety operates from the ground level of Millwright Hall around the clock during the semester and coordinates with the Porter Falls Police and Fire departments, whose stations are both within a mile of campus. For a real emergency the number is 911.
The practical details
Decision by: 5:30 a.m. for day classes; by 3:00 p.m. for evening classes. Notification: Porter Alert text and email, the homepage banner, local radio and TV. Default: Campus stays open; a closure is genuinely unusual for a Wesconsin campus. Anything time-sensitive — an accommodation, a booking, a deadline — is worth confirming directly before you rely on it, because the specifics here can change from term to term.
If you have a question
The office behind this is Porter Campus Safety (Millwright Hall, ground level). Call (715) 555–0191 or email safety@uwporterfalls.edu during the fall and spring terms, or sign in to MyPorter to send a message or book a time. If it turns out another office owns the question, they will route it rather than send you back to the start.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. Every office, person, building, phone number and statistic on this page is invented; nothing here describes a real institution or a service you can actually contact.