Temperatures lingered around 40 below for the second straight week and relief is nowhere in sight. Meanwhile, the spring semester is just getting into full swing, with only a few classes cancelled as a result of the cold, and reactions from students, faculty and the administration have been mixed.

"The last time I checked, this is the University of Alaska Fairbanks, emphasis on Fairbanks," said Chancellor Steve Jones. "If continuing normal operations risked imminent danger to life and limb, we would consider closing, but this is where we live and work, and it gets cold."

The decision to close campus lies with the chancellor, and though many students believe the cutoff to be 50 below, the university does not have an official temperature at which classes are cancelled. Still, many teachers have determined their own cutoff, and if the recent cold snap causes temperatures to drop further, some have instructed students to stay home.

"It seems the university is bound and determined to have us here no matter how cold it gets," said philosophy professor Joseph Thompson, who set the cutoff temperature for his introductory philosophy class at 55 below. "If it's 58 below, I don't think we should be coming to class."

Several classes were cancelled last week due to the instructors' cars failing to start, but most classes met as scheduled. Some students also missed class because of vehicle problems.

Acting Police Chief Sean McGee said the department helped with numerous equipment failures last week. "Some of those cars made it through last winter, but they're starting to break down now," McGee said. Since Jan. 1, police officers and campus safety officers have helped with 16 vehicle assists, which include jump-starts. Motorists with dead batteries can call the police department at 474-6200 for help.

"It's just something you have to deal with," said Jeff Viernes, a police department employee whose truck failed to start last Friday even though it was plugged in. Viernes, who is from California, still made it to work and school, and he does not think UAF needs a temperature cutoff.

His friend Alex Rodriguez disagreed: "I think negative 50 is a good cutoff point." Temperatures are expected to be slightly milder early this week, but National Weather Service forecasts for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights show possible lows of 50 below.

"It's really cold walking to class," said Brandon Beetus, who was glad to be in Fairbanks. At Hughes, his hometown, the temperature was much colder. "It's like 60 below or 70 below," Beetus said.

"Honestly, I think if I have to plug my truck in, classes should be optional," said junior computer science major Gary Woodward, from Queens, New York. "I mean at 40 below, let alone 20 below."

Woodward lives on campus and has a short commute to class, but Outdoor Adventures employee and mechanical engineering major Kari Lovett starts off her school day with a brisk 15-minute ski to campus.

"I think it should be [open]," Lovett said. "I mean, we live in Fairbanks. People should be on top of it." Lovett travels to school by ski every day that she can, even at 40 below, but she said the cold has affected her daily trips to campus.

"There's a lot more friction in the snow, so it takes longer to get here. It's like skiing on sand at this point," Lovett said.

While the cold snow last week slowed down skiers like Lovett, business has picked up at the campus Starbucks.

"It's been a lot busier since it's been colder," said Polar Perk employee Chaia Mason, a Pennsylvanian who is spending her first winter in Fairbanks. "When I wake up, and it's negative 50, I really don't want to go to class," added the freshman marine biology major, "but I do anyway."