Students’ eyes were locked on their Twitter feeds Monday night, waiting for the answer to one question: will classes be canceled?
8:01 p.m. _Refresh._ Still no news. 8:02 p.m. _Refresh. Refresh. Refresh._
Finally, at 8:16 p.m. after a few false alarms, MU Alert made the announcement: “Campus is fully closed Tuesday.”
“A couple of other people were in our lounge, and we heard the announcement was coming around 8 p.m.,” freshman Marcus Jones said. “So we were watching TV, waiting to see if it came across the screen. People were on Twitter, Facebook, all of social media. When we figured it out, we all ran out into the hall screaming.”
Freshman Josh Dykes learned about the snow day when he heard people screaming and celebrating on his floor shortly after the announcement.
“I ran around screaming and hugging like we won the Super Bowl,” Dykes said.
After waking up to a winter wonderland the next day, students bundled up and braved the snow. Many ended up at Francis Quadrangle, where tackle football and snowball fights were in full swing. Friends took selfies in front of the columns and people were sledding down the steps of Jesse Hall.
Jones spent his afternoon building a mini snowman, complete with buttons, twig arms and an MU hat.
“I was born outside of (Los Angeles), so I’ve never really had a snow day,” Jones said. “Why not build a snowman?”
Freshman Gregg Marx also spent his day on the Quad.
“I went out in the snow, played some football, threw some snowballs at people,” Marx said.
Marx is from Atlanta, and he had seen so much snow only once before.
“I’ve seen about 5 inches of snow one time, but it’s only been like, once,” Marx said. “It’s really rare. It was a lot of fun.”
With the announcement Tuesday evening of another snow day for Wednesday, students got to enjoy a second day off from school, once again sleeping in late, drinking hot chocolate and enjoying the powdery white snow.