An IU emergency alert issued Sunday evening announced the Bloomington campus would be in a state of limited operations Monday, with only essential personnel expected to report to campus.
Classes and non-essential work will be virtual, due to the severe winter weather. Normal operations are expected to resume at 6 a.m. Tuesday.
Monroe County’s travel advisory status became a warning — the highest level — at 8:55 a.m. Sunday. A countywide winter storm warning is expected to continue until 7 a.m. Monday, according to the National Weather Service.
As of 5:19 p.m., Bloomington received 14 inches of snow.
A cold weather advisory was put in effect from 12 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday. An extreme cold warning will follow, lasting from 7 p.m. Monday to 9 a.m. Tuesday.
Bloomington Transit services were canceled Sunday and will not resume until 1:30 p.m. Monday.
The last time weather halted in-person classes was due to severe cold and wind chills in January 2019. In the past 100 years, IU has canceled classes and closed campus only a handful of times, mainly due to heavy snow and low temperatures.
The Spanish Flu and COVID-19 pandemic suspended on-campus classes in 1918 and 2020, respectively. In 1963, classes were canceled and offices were closed after the assassination of former president John F. Kennedy. A coal shortage caused a 23-day closure in 1978 and in 2024, the university canceled classes for the solar eclipse.
