Progress on severe weather plans

The following message is from SFU's office of Environmental Health and
Safety:

In response to the Community’s concern over the events surrounding
the snowstorm on January 10th, a working group was struck to develop
a plan to handle situations where travel to and from the campus is
impeded due to severe weather conditions. We want to take this
opportunity to share with you some of the progress that has been
made to date.

Many thoughtful and useful suggestions were compiled from the
various e-mails and meetings held on the Burnaby campus in the days
following Jan 10th. Many of them are being considered and put
forward into our new strategies.

• Communication within operational groups on Campus, with Surrey and
Vancouver Campus as well as with external agencies such as the City
of Burnaby and TransLink are being strengthened.

• Notification procedures of class cancellations or a closure are
being reviewed and as appropriate will be enhanced to include
multiple means of communication to ensure that those without access
to phone or email are also advised.

• Information Centres on Campus are being developed. The purpose of
an Information Centre is to provide an area where students and staff
can comfortably congregate and receive the most up-to-date
information on road conditions and bus service resumption. In the
event of a snow storm or an occurrence that postpones travel off
campus, communications will be posted around campus directing you to
these Information Centres.

• Should conditions dictate that individuals will be required to
remain on Campus for several hours or overnight, units responsible
for providing basic needs and services will be activated.

• Essential functions such as Health, Residences and Dining services
will be required to maintain partial or full operations.

• Additionally, the working group is developing means for
implementing traffic control measures to ensure that snow removal
can be performed for safer driving conditions for all.

This past winter’s weather has been eventful and while we don’t
anticipate another snow storm of this magnitude to occur again
anytime soon, if it should, we will be prepared.

As we progress in development of the Plan we will continue to keep
you updated.


The preceding message was from SFU's office of Environmental Health and
Safety