With winter just around the corner, this is a good time for members of the campus community to get reacquainted with the University of Iowa’s severe weather policies and make sure their Hawk Alert contact information is up to date.

Whenever possible, the university continues to function during inclement weather. As long as faculty, staff, and students are able to travel safely to and from campus, regularly scheduled classes will continue to meet and employees are expected to report for work. (View the university’s Extreme Weather Protocol at www.uiowa.edu/~our/opmanual/ii/22.htm.)

If classes are canceled, the university will issue a Hawk Alert via phone, text, email, and posts to the UI homepage, the UI Emergency Information website, and its Facebook and Twitter accounts. The success of Hawk Alert notifications, however, depends on up-to-date contact information. To review and update that information in the University Enterprise Directory (via ISIS or Employee Self Service), visit login.uiowa.edu/uip/login.page?service=https://web.its.uiowa.edu/hawkalert/isis/contact.page.

Keep in mind that Hawk Alert notifications are intended for members of the campus community, not family and friends.

Here’s some other helpful winter weather information:

• Consider taking the bus when the weather turns bad. Bongo, the UI’s GPS-based, real-time passenger information system, tells you when a bus from the Coralville, Iowa City, or university transit systems will reach a route so you don’t have to stand in the cold longer than necessary. More information at www.ebongo.org/.
• Crews begin shoveling snow at 5 a.m. or earlier, with the goal of having most of the snow cleared from campus streets, sidewalks, steps, and other areas (including the UI Research Park) by 7:30 a.m. Plows head onto campus from the Madison Street shop and move outward through their routes.
• The UI Parking and Transportation Department offers free jump-start service for employees, students, and visitors parked on the UI's main campus. The service is offered on an as-available basis from 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The service is not offered on university holidays. To request service, call 319-335-8312.

View more winter weather information on the UI Emergency Information site at emergency.uiowa.edu.