Week of delays due to Ian

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Last Monday afternoon, all Tallahassee schools and university officials announced the closure of school campuses anticipating the then category 5 hurricane Ian. Hurricane Ian was expected to bring high winds, heavy rain, and flooding to the local community.

The school’s one-week closure caused many unforeseen delays between students’ classes and campus organizations. Florida A&M University students took advantage of the opportunity as a much-needed break, while professors expressed concern.

What was intended by many to be a week of ugly weather turned out to be a week full of sunshine and temperatures above the 80’s. Not an ounce of rain hit the city of Tallahassee and there was no sign of storm damage.

Due to classes being canceled, many students did not hesitate to take full advantage of the impromptu time off in various ways.

Dylan Kyle, a third-year business administration student and president of FAMU Real Estate and Leadership Club, thoroughly enjoyed his time off and used it to reset.

“I was chilling the entire week. We had two beautiful days when most people thought it was going to be a lot of rain,” Kyle said. He also took the time to catch up on work and necessities.

Following the announcement, a vast number of students eagerly bought plane tickets and filled up gas tanks to travel back home. Kyle also serves as a Resident Assistant for University Housing and recalled about 20 of his 30 residents leaving campus for the week.

Jordan Crawford, a second-year civil engineering student from Orlando, Fla., escaped the college town and went to be with family.

“I went back home to Orlando before the storm hit,” Crawford said. “It was the perfect opportunity to have a break and see family and friends. I was also able to get ahead in work and start studying for exams that got pushed back.”

Consequently, the university closure brought about delays in class and organization schedules.

“I’m also the president of the real estate club on campus and we planned a meet and greet event with guest speaker Cedric Bobo, the CEO and Co-Founder of Project Destined for this past Wednesday, the event had to be postponed,” Kyle said.

While most students collectively agreed they enjoyed the break; this was not the same for political science professor Abdul Shariff.

“I wasn’t too excited to have the week off, I was concerned about my students and whether they were ok. I was worried about how I was going to accommodate the students who were affected by the disaster,” Shariff said. “I had to adjust my initial class schedule and remove a chapter from our course to stay on schedule as far as testing is concerned because time is short. Though it’s important to be proactive in putting student safety first.”

FAMU opened back up Monday with normal operations. The university urges students to follow up with professors and organizations about updated agendas.