Snow day!

These two words fill students with glee, but are rarely uttered on the UAF campus. It may strike some students as a paradox that the nation's northernmost university almost never cancels classes because of winter weather.

"Alaskans have a point of pride just to carry on with business as usual, regardless of the weather," said Professor John Keller.

As he recalls, the university has shut down only once due to weather conditions during his 26 years in the Chemistry Department. Keller, an Alaskan to the core, has never canceled any of his classes due to weather. With his big truck and studded tires, he said he has no excuses to miss class.

Chancellor Steve Jones holds the power to close the school. When the temperature plunged into the minus 50s in January 2006, he received several inquiries as to what it would take to shut the school down.

The most important consideration in this decision is the physical state of the school's buildings Jones said. He wants to be certain the facilities are warm enough to be an environment conducive to learning, "because people have to spend a lot of time in a somewhat sedentary state," he said.

But not too sedentary.

"I hope they're not sleeping," he said with a grin.

Another consideration is whether the public school system is still operating. The chancellor considers the public schools a good reference, if they're open, the university should be too.

"That's a signal that people who have been in the business, besides here at the university, have reached the decision, in concert with public transportation and road crews, that it is relatively safe to get people back and forth," he said.

The Fairbanks North Star Borough School District has strict guidelines for school closure. According to the district's Web site, there have only been three times in the past 10 years that the school has closed.

Lynda Sather, the director of community and public relations for the school district, said she has a number to call to alert the university if the public school system has deemed it too dangerous for its students to attend.

"I've been told to contact the UAF Police Department dispatch if schools are closed or delayed," she said.

The university then has the information it needs to make a decision about school's students and faculty. The public schools were closed twice in fall 2003 and once in winter 2004. All three closures were due to freezing rain.

"The roads were glazed with ice," Sather said. "It was the unsafe driving conditions that caused the schools to shut down."

Since then, the school district has found a way to avoid closing school when the driving conditions are bad.

"We have initiated a procedure where we delay the start of school," Sather said.

The two-hour delay of classes allows gravel trucks to get out on the roads, and gives everyone driving a little more daylight to work with.

Driving conditions for the university's students and faculty are not as likely to figure into the decision-making process, according Chancellor Jones. If the students can not make it to school because of difficult weather conditions he recommends speaking with teachers on a case by case basis.

Jones said he can't imagine a faculty member not accommodating students with reasonable requests related to severe or hazardous weather, adding with a smile "It's not like we're the wardens and you guys [the students] are prisoners."

According to Jones, this system has worked well since his induction as chancellor. In his high-profile position with the school he is at the receiving end of many e-mails expressing dissatisfaction with various aspects of school life, but he has not received any complaints about faculty responses to weather-related absences.

Keller said he has a makeup policy that wouldn't be called liberal. Weather-related absences fall under a broad category that includes sickness and childcare issues.

"There's no reason to say one crisis is worse than another one, outside of dying," Keller said, his gravelly voice carrying a hint of sternness.

Despite his self-proclaimed toughness he gives all students a chance to recover when it comes to tests.

"I have one all-purpose makeup exam," he said, and that gives every student a chance to catch up, whatever their reason for absence.