As a winter storm swept through Indiana Tuesday, students struggled to make it to class on slippery sidewalks while maintenance crews worked to keep up with the weather. But IU officials said it takes a lot more for the school to close.\nClasses at IU-East and IU-Purdue University Columbus were canceled during the afternoon, said Kirk White, IU director of community relations. White said that because the campus-wide alert system is used on all nine IU campuses, some IUB students received the alert, but they still had to attend classes. \n“The most important thing here is, number one, there’s a system in place that works,” White said, “and number two, we have to get the message out that the students, faculty and staff need to go onto the OneStart Web site and update their profiles.”\nDespite slippery conditions, White said, many criteria must be met for IU to cancel classes. He said that because most students live close to campus, University officials don’t close campus often.\n“It has to be a pretty critical situation for students, faculty and staff,” White said. “(Tuesday’s) weather doesn’t even come close to the threshold we consider to canceling class.”\nStill, some felt the pain of commuting around campus. At around 1 p.m., Elizabeth Horseman fell outside of Ballantine Hall because of the icy conditions. An ambulance rushed Horseman to Bloomington Hospital because she injured her right ankle, said IU Police Department Capt. Jerry Minger. No one could confirm that Horseman was a student.
After Horseman’s accident, IUPD officers notified IU Physical Plant Building Services that the walk between Ballantine Hall and Jordan Avenue needed to be re-salted. \nThe IU Physical Plant Campus Division used almost a record amount of materials to help conditions.\nThe plant used about 200 tons of road salt on sidewalks and steps throughout the day, said Mike Schrader, assistant manager of the IU Physical Plant Campus Division.\n“We zone out the campus according to sectors,” Schrader said. “We have five different ground maintenance zones and five satellite crew areas. We already have areas geographically located. We try to stay on our routes. Some of us have been doing this for 20-plus years.”\nSalt crews began work at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday and ran into the evening until the buses finished their routes, Schrader said. The Campus Division can have up to 14 tractors working at one time, but Tuesday, the plant used five tractors to spread salt on the sidewalks and five trucks to spread salt on the streets, Schrader said.
