According to the Tennessee Board of Regents Policy 5-01-01-11, the University President may declare East Tennessee State University closed during specific times due to inclement weather or other emergency situations. This policy sets in motion the Campus-wide Advisory System, and will hereafter be the official point of communication from the Office of the Vice President for Finance and Administration to communicate campus closings or other advisories affecting campus operations as deemed necessary by the Vice President for Finance and Administration. The Campus-wide Advisory System is located on the ETSU Web domain at www.etsu.edu/advisory.

To further facilitate campus-wide communication, the Vice President for Finance and Administration will also post non-emergency level advisories related to campus operations. Decisions to post advisories on the Campus-wide Advisory System will be based on the following policy.

• Campus-wide advisories are approved by the Vice President for Finance and Administration. Advisories related to the following circumstances are considered appropriate content and are pre-approved for the ETSU Campus-wide Advisory System. Requests to post information not directly addressed in this policy must be approved by the Vice President for Finance and Administration prior to posting.
  • Weather related campus closings or delays
    • Denoted by a red button (  ) located adjacent to the “ETSU Advisory” link on the ETSU homepage.
    • Weather related advisories will also be reflected by an additional text message posted in a prominent location on the ETSU homepage.
  • Facilities related closings or detours
    • Denoted by a gold button (  ) located adjacent to the “ETSU Advisory” link on the ETSU homepage.
    • Facilities related advisories require a change in campus operations, such as a building closure or traffic detour due to construction or other disruption of normal procedure.
      • Water disruptions that will affect one or more buildings.
      • Electrical disruptions that will affect one or more buildings.
      • Steam or chilled water disruptions that will affect one or more buildings.
      • Health and safety related problems that affect one or more buildings.
      • Road closures
      • Parking lot closures
      • Construction that will in some way affect the campus community, either inside a building or on the exterior.
  • Information Technology related disruption of service
    • Denoted by a red button (  ) located adjacent to the “ETSU Advisory” link on the ETSU homepage.
    • Information Technology related advisories reflect a system or application outage, telecommunications outage, or a computer virus advisory.
      • Computer Virus or critical vulnerability identified in the ETSU network.
      • Outage of all or a portion of the ETSU network.
      • Security compromise of the ETSU network.
      • Outage of the ETSU email system.
      • Outage of the Blackboard server.
      • Outage of any mission critical server.
      • Outage of any mission critical application.
    • Delays in any Information Technology service will be denoted by a gold button (  ) adjacent to the “ETSU Advisory” link on the ETSU homepage.
      • Computer virus or vulnerability causes a delay in network delivery.
      • Loss of a portion of service slowing delivery of access to the network.
      • Significant delay or slowing of the exchange server.
      • Significant delay or slowing of any server or application.
    • Additional maintenance of any Information Technology service will be denoted by a blue button (  ) adjacent to the “ETSU Advisory” link on the ETSU homepage.
      • Regular maintenance of the information technology infrastructure does not require a posted advisory.
      • Any maintenance of information technology infrastructure that is in addition to regularly scheduled maintenance will be posted as an advisory.
• Posted advisories must contain the following information
  • Advisory Title
  • Advisory Level – denoted by color
  • Advisory Status – Active, inactive, expiration date
  • Archive Status
  • Advisory Description

The policy on closing East Tennessee State University due to inclement weather states that ETSU and its branch campuses will normally remain open during bad weather.

Under extreme conditions, however, the President of the university may choose to close or suspend selected activities of ETSU or its branch campuses. The decision to close ETSU or to cancel some or all classes will be made and announced as soon as possible to accommodate students who must commute and to accommodate employees.

An official statement of closing or schedule alteration will be broadcast over several radio and television stations in the region and will be posted online at www.etsu.edu/advisory, ETSU’s home page.

Please note that: ETSU closing information will be immediately accessible on the university’s Public Radio station WETS-FM, found at 89.5 on the dial; via www.etsu.edu/advisory; and by a recording on the university switchboard at (423) 439-1000.

Generally, university classes and operations will return to normal without any follow-up announcements in the local news media that indicate ETSU is open on a regular schedule. The focus is on announcing schedule variations, not normal operations. However, it is possible that “rare and severe weather situations” could dictate a re-opening statement.

While traveling to class or to work in inclement weather, ETSU students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to consider any personal risk involved and to exercise caution. Students and employees unable to attend classes or report to work in these circumstances should reference university weather policy via the Student Handbook or ETSU Personnel Policies posted on www.etsu.edu.