Below is our campus policy regarding operational status during the winter months and severe weather conditions which may require the cancellation of classes or the closing of the campus on either a partial or full-day basis.

It is important to understand that no employee is expected to put their life in jeopardy to get to campus.

Personal safety and the ability to come to campus is left to the individual.  Faculty are kindly requested to extend the same consideration to their students. Circumstances may call for:

Delay: Campus will OPEN at announced time - When a delay is announced, the announced hours of delay results in the elimination of those classes falling in the declared delay time. Upon the end of delay time, normal class schedules will resume for the remainder of the day.

For example, a two-hour delay in the morning means that the campus is closed from 8 am to 10 am and classes will resume at 10am. Classes that begin before the announced delay time and continue past 10 am would resume at 10am and end at the regularly scheduled time.

This delay statement applies to all but essential employees. Staff should report at time indicated.

Closure: Campus will CLOSE at announced time - All operations after the closing time will be terminated.  All but essential staff will be authorized to leave at the time indicated.

General Guidelines:  When the Chancellor makes the decision to close Penn State Scranton or delay the start of classes, the regional media will be notified two hours prior to the standard 8 a.m. reporting time for staff and before the start of the earliest scheduled class. The announcement will apply to all classes for the period affected.

The campus status will be communicated through the following channels:

  • PSU Emergency Notification System:  PSUALERT  (sign-up instructions below)
  • Campus main web page.
  • Penn State Scranton Weather Delay & Emergency Information Line.  All employees and students can access the system by calling (570) 963-2766.
  • Local media stations.
  • Campus Facebook page

Principles Governing Faculty Practices: If faculty make personal decisions to cancel classes during inclement weather, each instructor must discuss any weather-related arrangements in advance with the students, preferably at the beginning of the semester.

If a faculty member cancels a class, he/she must notify students through telephone trees, email lists, instant messaging, or any other appropriate means. These arrangements should appear in the course syllabus. To assist students who travel a significant distance for classes, any such cancellation notices should be announced, if possible, no later than two hours prior to the beginning of the class period.

If you must cancel or postpone a class because of illness or other crisis for which you did not have lead time, please notify someone in Academic Affairs by calling 570-963-2505.  If voicemail picks up, leave a message but ALSO dial 570-963-2510 to speak with someone in person.  If you are not able to speak directly to someone at either number, please be sure to send an email notification to ALL the following individuals: Suzanne Morgan at [email protected], and Sharon Ebert at [email protected].

Principles Governing Student Practices:  If students notify their instructors that they are unable to travel to class because of weather conditions, faculty members should help students make up the missed work.

Principles Governing Staff Practices: With the exception of essential employees who have been informed of their status by letter, all other staff should follow the same instructions that apply to students.

If a staff member believes that he/she is in any danger, each employee should exercise her/his own good judgment about reporting to work. However, each staff member should understand the implications of personal decisions and follow the directions provided in Human Resources Guideline 10 “Handling ‘Weather Day’ Absences or Official University Closedowns Due to Weather Conditions" (https://policy.psu.edu/policies/hrg10)

Interpreting the Various Scripts Used by Media Outlets: Penn State Scranton will do everything it can to deliver clear and concise messages to the media. 

The messages will appear as follows: The campus is on a two-hour delay; the campus is open; campus is closed; or the campus will open/close at a specific time. All faculty, staff, and students are expected to familiarize themselves with the specific phrases and their meanings. Please note that some media outlets release only minimal information and may use terminology different from the University’s terminology. 

The official Penn State information will be found on the various electronic systems [web and Weather Delay & Emergency Information Line] noted below.  Most media operators use computer systems with limited memory and often remove critical weather information after a few hours. 

If classes are cancelled due to inclement weather, please call:
Weather Delay & Emergency Information Line: 570- 963-2766

MEDIA OUTLETS OFFERING WEATHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

TELEVISION

Greater Scranton
WNEP-TV (16), http://www.wnep.com/
WYOU-TV (22), https://www.pahomepage.com/
WBRE-TV (28), https://www.pahomepage.com/

CAMPUS MEDIA

Penn State Scranton Website
http://www.sn.psu.edu/

PSU EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION SYSTEM/TEXT MESSAGING

PSUALERT*
https://psualert.psu.edu/psualert/

*PSUAlert is Penn State's emergency notification system for students, faculty and staff. The system will be used to alert members of Penn State's campus communities of emergencies, campus closings and other urgent information. Using this portal, students, faculty and staff can choose to receive PSUAlert messages by text message, voice message and e-mail. Registration is via the Web.

To sign up, visit https://psualert.psu.edu/psualert/ and follow the instructions.