Despite four days of treacherous freezing rain, frigid conditions, gusting winds and snow, this week’s final exam will be unaffected.

However, University spokesperson Rae Goldsmith said she recommends students contact professors about final projects and exams.

“We do encourage students to reach out to their faculty members if they have concerns and we know a lot of faculty and students have been online by email, so we hope people will reach out to connect directly with their faculty,” Goldsmith said.

SIU President Glenn Poshard said it is rare for the SIU campus to close, as it did Friday. The most recent snow day at SIU was in February of 2009.

“We don’t usually get this kind of severe weather this early, in terms of snow and ice and that sort of thing,” he said.

Poshard said deciding if the campus would close was based upon the report given to the chancellor by physical plant services.

“A lot of times it depends upon, is it continuing bad weather, do we have a chance to get the sidewalks and the parking lots cleared without any piling back up right behind us,” he said.

With finals this week, Poshard said it was problematic to close the university Friday, but the shutdown was necessary.

“This close to the end of the session you really want to get in all the classes you can because finals are coming up,” he said. “But I think the risk was too great, I had to be pushed out of my driveway (Friday) morning.”

Goldsmith said they are keeping an eye on the weather and do not see the need to reschedule finals week.

“Students should assume finals will take place as planned and we’re pretty confident that we will be in good shape on Monday,” she said.

Phil Gatton, director of plant and service operations, said the initial decision was made Friday morning around 4:30, and is a long and complicated process.

“We look at campus conditions, the night before like what our preparation is, what kind of equipment we have available, what the city and the county and the highway roads as far as what they are going to be doing,” he said.

The physical plant services use 13 mowers with plows, two salt trucks with plows, a front-end loader, two tractors and five pickups with snow blades, along with brine sprayers to clean the sidewalks and roadways.

Gatton said the campus is not usually shut down strictly due to snow, as it is fairly easy to remove with the use of salt. Thursday’s storm was an exception because salt is only effective in temperatures above 25 degrees. The campus generally can be open within three to four hours after the application of salt.

“It’s never an easy decision closing campus but I think there was no choice (Friday),” Gatton said.

Taylor Ross, an undeclared freshman, said it was ideal for SIU to have a snow day, as a lot of students did not want to leave their dorms.

“I would have rather stayed inside. I mean even though I’m from Chicago I didn’t expect Carbondale to have snow like this so I did not bring boots or anything, so I would’ve been walking to class in these moccasins.”

Lentz worker Brittny Winston, a sophomore studying biological science said she didn’t mind going to work, because it was a short commute, and it bettered her academic life.

“I’m pretty okay. I only live across the street,” said Winston. ”I had a test (Friday) so it gave me more time to study.”