Winter weather ices Iowa Western classes | News

(Council Bluffs) — Wednesday’s winter storm wiped out classes at most KMAland schools–including colleges and universities.

Iowa Western Community College campuses and centers were closed because of extreme winter weather–including blizzard conditions in some parts of the region. Speaking on KMA’s “Morning Line” program Wednesday morning, Iowa Western President Dr. Daniel Kinney says student and staff safety is the number-one consideration in terms of canceling classes.

“It’s really sitting back and looking at data,” said Kinney. “My first thing is safety for my faculty, staff and my students. I probably pull the trigger quicker than some institutions, but to me, I’ve got students that have to drive in. I’ve got a lot of high school students that are taking classes that probably wouldn’t show up today (Wednesday). So, it’s a difficult situation to do it, but we make it happen.”

Kinney says Iowa Western traditionally builds in seven additional class days in the academic schedule to accommodate possible snow days.

“We’re already over the required hours the state had,” he said. “I guess, in a way, you could build in some snow days, but we don’t have to make them up. We have a certain amount of seat time that students have to do. Most community colleges are above that, just knowing that, hey, we’re going to run into these type of days.”

Though Iowa Western’s canceled up to five days of classes this semester, Kinney says the school doesn’t have to make those up. He adds many instructors provide students class assignments through remote learning. You can hear the full interview with Dr. Daniel Kinney here: