Collegiate Times

When wildfires ravaged Southern California, many people, businesses, and locations were affect-ed.

Also affected by the wildfires were universities and their student bodies.

Many universities were forced to shut down their campuses for about a week as a result. "We had to close our campus for about a week because of high winds and smoke," said Joe Gutierrez, associate director of public affairs for California State University San Bernardino.

Conditions at some campuses were highly unsafe, with some winds reaching speeds of 65 miles per hour.

"A student could come out of a classroom building without realizing and be slammed into a wall," Gutierrez said.

Also a danger to students was the poor condition of the air.

"The air quality around the university was incredibly poor and possibly the worst the university area has seen in a long time," said Stacie Spector, associate vice chancellor of communications at University of California at San Diego. "We had to change more than 6,000 air filters around the campus."

Also contributing to the campus closings were orders from the state of California.

"Authorities had asked that all non-essential personnel stay off the roads, so given the fact that we have a student body of 35,000, with many who commute to campus, it was almost a public service for us to cancel classes," said Tom Hanscom, director of media relations.

As a result, many students left campus.

"Overall, our student body has reacted to the fires pretty well," Gutierrez said. "Many of our students who live in the area went home, while other students went to one of the many evacuation centers located around the city of San Diego."

Critical to the universities' reactions were the use of different messaging systems. "We used a variety of methods to get in touch with students," Hanscom said. "The university used text messages, e-mails, visits from RAs to students in the dorms and e-mails to parents."

Many universities directed their information releases based on the events at Virginia Tech on April 16.

"Especially after what happened at Virginia Tech this past spring, our college really made an effort to improve our campus communication," Gutierrez said.

With most universities returning to full schedules, schools are now working to bring their classes up to speed after missing a week.

"We're not going to extend the number of days this semester," said George Cagala, associate director of public relations at California State San Marcos. "We're leaving the work of catching up coursework up to our professors."

Though a week was missed, universities are prepared to move forward. "We lost a week, but we're not behind," Spector said.