Inclement Weather Policy

As a residential campus, Harvard University is open for business every day of the academic year, except for recognized holidays and other periods of official closure. From time to time, however, weather conditions are sufficiently extreme or hazardous such that normal administrative and/or academic operations are suspended, and only essential services are provided.

In the event of severely inclement weather, any decisions related to the suspension of normal operations – including delayed starts, early releases or office closings - will be made and communicated by Harvard’s Executive Vice President and the University’s Emergency Management team.

Critical Personnel

Throughout the year, each Central Administration unit will ensure all staff understand their status for weather related events, as critical or non-critical, including whether they are expected to report to work even if the University decides to alter working business hours or suspend normal operations for the day.

Communication

Any changes to schedules will be communicated in the following ways.  Critical personnel should additionally receive communication from their local units. No messages will be sent if there is no change to regular working hours. 

The Harvard homepage 

  • The Harvard homepage (www.harvard.edu) will post an alert and direct users to an emergency page outlining the University’s response 
  • The University’s 24-hour news line, (617) 496-NEWS, will be updated with any University response to severe weather

Central Administration-wide email message from the Executive Vice President

  • The Executive Vice President will communicate any decisions related to the suspension of normal operations – including delayed starts, early releases or suspension of normal operations 

MessageMe Alert

  • A MessageMe alert will be sent to all CADM employees when decisions have been made regarding delayed starts, early releases, or the suspension of normal operations. Critical employees should always follow their specific local policies and the guidance provided by their local leadership.  Please be sure to review and update your contact preferences in MessageMe:  https://messageme.harvard.edu/

Employee Responsibility

Absent a suspension of normal operations, all staff are expected to make every effort commensurate with their personal safety to be at work.

Non-critical Staff

  • If there is a suspension of normal operations, a resulting absence will be considered excused paid time off and will not be charged to a staff member’s vacation or personal time.
  • Non-exempt staff who were scheduled to work that day should enter their time as if they worked their regular schedule by entering the REG pay code in PeopleSoft.
  • Non-exempt staff who were not scheduled to work that day do not need to make any other adjustments in PeopleSoft, nor will they earn additional floating hours.
  • Non-exempt staff who were not scheduled to work that day but were called in will enter their time with the REG pay code in PeopleSoft.
  • If a staff member had a planned vacation or was otherwise not scheduled to work, that time would not be adjusted

Critical Staff

  • For employees who have been designated as critical, the normal work expectations apply:  every effort should be made to come to work, absent a previously approved absence or illness. In consideration of the safety of our employees, critical personnel, who find themselves in a specific circumstance that would make travel unsafe, must contact their supervisor as soon as possible for approval to be absent and to follow-up with the supervisor whenever a change in circumstances makes it safe to do so.
  • Local units should establish protocols to ensure that critical employees understand how to proceed if they are unable to come to work, especially in the case of the suspension of normal operations.  Critical employees are to refer to their local department policies and plans regarding emergency response and business continuity.

Contingent Workers and Meetings

If there is an official suspension of normal operations, local management should ensure any temporary or contract workers are notified. Additionally, appointments or interviews scheduled that day with non-employees will also need to be cancelled.  It is expected that managers will bring the necessary information home with them prior to a severe storm in order to contact these non-employee constituents when there is an official weather-related suspension of normal operations.