Friday, February 19, 2021
Dear SMU students, faculty, staff and families,
With the sun out today and the snow beginning to melt, I want to thank you all for your hard work, tenacity and patience as we have worked our way through this mammoth winter weather event. Things will begin to get back to normal on Monday when we resume classes, virtually, and decide how classes will be delivered on Tuesday and the rest of the week.
The campus fared much better than many in Dallas and throughout Texas, but it has been a tough time for all Mustangs, including the 251 students living on the Hilltop who had to relocate when bursting pipes and other weather-related issues forced us to find them other temporary accommodations. We know our faculty, staff and students living off-campus have had their own issues with lack of heat, bursting pipes and flooding, only compounded on and off campus when dropping water pressure prompted us to follow a “boil water” mandate.
Our essential staff members have done heroic round-the-clock work to keep our on-campus students warm, dry and fed. Many of them caught what sleep they could on campus or in nearby hotels to accomplish that important work. They worked to procure and stage thousands of bottles of hard-to-find water for students after the “boil water” order was issued, and the SMU Moms and Dads Club stepped up to make water and snacks available. Essential workers also opened and staffed Hughes-Trigg Student Center as a warming and charge-up station, which we knew would be important for our off-campus students. We owe them all our heartfelt thanks for enduring long hours and bitter cold to help get us through this and should recognize that there is still a great deal more hard work for them to do next week and beyond.
The University is prioritizing repairs to our on-campus student housing to allow students to move back to their own rooms as quickly as possible and pushing hard to re-open weather-impacted classroom spaces. Students will be notified when to expect housing and buildings to come back on line and we will provide them with support until they do.
I know I can count on your continued patience as the thaw likely reveals more infrastructure problems that were previously hidden by the cold and snow. Check SMU Aware for the latest information and continue to monitor SMU Aware email and SMU Twitter and Facebook for updates. Please continue to look out for each other as we get back to the business of teaching and learning. We can all be reassured that in tough times, Mustangs always “Pony Up.”
R. Gerald Turner
President