Friday afternoon classes are being cancelled in response to the impending freezing temperatures and slippery snow expected to impact the Quad City area ahead of Winter Break.
“I’m concerned about driving back because it took [the city] awhile to salt the roads and I’m worried it might be too cold for my car too handle,” sophomore Crystal Salazar said about the two hour drive home she has to look forward to the Chicago suburbs.
All classes held after 12:45 p.m. on Friday are now canceled.
Many students are planning on traveling home for the holidays following classes on Friday Dec.16., and the college has made a decision to keep safety of the students as a top priority.
“We know that the forecast is calling for wintry weather in Northern Illinois this weekend and with student’s driving home we didn’t want the conditions to impact travel on the roads,” Augustana’s Senior Communications Director Sam Schlouch said.
The Residential Halls will extend their hours and allow students to remain on campus until Sunday at noon to offer students a chance to ride out the storm and prepare themselves without the added pressure of leaving in dangerous conditions.
Salazar plans to wait for weather conditions to improve before heading out onto the roads because “it’s better to be safe than sorry”.
The last time classes were cancelled happened on Jan. 27, 2014 according to Schlouch. Activities were cancelled for similar weather conditions in Feb. 1 of last year but continued the next day.
Schlouch said in an email to the entire campus on Thursday that more schedule adjustments could be made if  weather ends up changing on Friday.
Follow @AugieObserver on Twitter for more updates.