The University will make a determination on closings, cancellations, and late openings due to inclement weather, giving primary consideration to the safety of faculty, staff, students, and visitors. Criteria that may be considered in making such determinations include: condition of area roads and ability of faculty, staff, students, and visitors to get to campus; status and schedules of public transportation; and forecast of coming weather.

Notification

All notifications concerning school closure or delayed openings will be made through the HOYAlert emergency notification system that sends notifications by email and text message and posted to the Operating Status page. All current students, faculty, and staff are automatically enrolled in HOYAlert. If you would like to update your information or opt out of HOYAlerts, you can update your profile information.

Announcements concerning weather-related closings or delayed openings will also be posted to the Law Center homepage.

Remote Teaching Options for Instructional Continuity

When the Law Center announces a closure or delayed opening, faculty will have the option either to reschedule the class session or to conduct class remotely on the Zoom web conferencing platform. Zoom meetings allow you to host a class or seminar from any location equipped with a computer, tablet, or smartphone, along with an internet or cellular data connection. Remotely taught class sessions will occur during the regularly scheduled class period. Faculty will notify their students in advance of their plans. Please visit the Law Center’s Business and Instructional Continuity site for more information on the available tools for supporting faculty during inclement weather.

Closing

When the Law Center is closed due to inclement weather, it is expected that only designated emergency employees will come to the campus to fulfill their responsibilities. Emergency employees must always report to work on time, regardless of weather conditions. Employees are designated as emergency employees because they are essential to the operation and maintenance of the Georgetown University Law Center when inclement weather conditions exist. All other members of the Law Center community – including students, staff, faculty, and visitors – are expected not to come to the Law Center, which will not be staffed to support anything other than essential life safety and snow/ice clearing functions.

When the Law Center announces a closure, all classes will either implement one of the remote teaching options or be rescheduled. All activities and services other than classes (i.e., student organization meetings and events, CLE, and conferences), will be canceled. All administrative offices will be closed. The food services operation, fitness center, and Early Learning Center will be closed. The library will be presumptively closed. Because the library in some instances may not be closed, its operating status will be posted with the announcements.

Delayed Opening

When the Law Center announces a delayed opening, the announcement will include the time at which it will open. Classes starting after that announced time will run as originally scheduled. Faculty may choose to run classes starting at earlier times using instructional continuity technology, but will need to inform their students of this intention in advance. Special events and programs scheduled to start before opening time will be canceled or delayed, as determined by each program. On dates when a delayed opening is announced, all designated emergency employees are expected to report to work on time but all other employees may use liberal leave, meaning that employees are expected to report by the announced opening time or may choose not to report to work. Employees who do not report to work may use their accrued paid leave for the time. Employees who report to work by the announced opening time will be paid for their normal workday. Employees must follow their department’s normal call-in procedures to discuss the needs of their unit and individual circumstances requiring the use of liberal leave.

Early Closure/Evenings and Weekends

When the Law Center announces an early closure, or a closure on a Saturday or Sunday, all affected classes will either implement one of the remote teaching options or be rescheduled. Special events or programs will be canceled or rescheduled. In such cases, an announcement, including the status of the library, will be posted to the Georgetown Law main website. An announcement will also be sent by email and text message via Georgetown’s Emergency Notification System (HOYAlert). All efforts will be made to post the announcement regarding canceling Saturday and/or Sunday classes and events as early as possible on the day of the closing.