A couple of weeks ago, Mercyhurst University closed for two days, a Wednesday and a Thursday, due to cold weather.

There has been a lot of people debating whether or not this was the right thing to do.

I do think that it was a little extreme for the university to cancel all classes due to the subzero temperatures, but this was pretty unusual weather, even for Erie.

I did make Wednesday productive at least, by looking at possibilities for summer internships.

I even found a few that I want to pursue.

But to go back to the question at hand: Should the campus have actually shut down due to the weather?

I say maybe, but I’m taking two mini courses, and they both cover a metric ton of information each day.

Skipping even one day throws a mini off course by a lot more than it would to a full semester course.

This naturally impacts how I see the situation. Missing even one mini class means that I missed out on a lot of information.

Other than missing classes, my priorities and extracurricular agenda weren’t messed up too much.

I can’t speak for other individuals, but I’m sure many of them had a lot more on their plate.

I really hope their agendas weren’t thrown off course by too much.

But I can also understand why campus was closed for those two days, even thought I don’t know if I entirely agree with the decision.

I also know that cold weather can be very deadly, and that this was just a precaution to reduce the risk of frostbite and hypothermia.

There can be no doubt that there were many extreme risks involved in allowing Mercyhurst’s campus to operate during those two days.

The weather was dangerous, especially for those with conditions that made them especially vulnerable to cold weather.

Maybe they did the right thing in the end by playing it safe, but we have had similar winters in the past.

I visited Erie during an extremely cold episode, and the campus was operating as it otherwise would.

But, granted, it was not as cold that time as it was this time around.

So should they have shut down the campus because of the cold?

My answer is that I am not sure whether or not it was necessary, but it is always good to play it safe.

There were both pros and cons to their decision, and I don’t know which side of it I end up falling on.

But I can take extreme weather like that.

After all, the cold never bothered me anyway.