FAYETTEVILLE – John Piacere, a 21-year-old business major and three-year commuter from Hope Mills, says he has once driven to campus through falling snow to catch a 9:30 a.m. public relations’ class.

“I waited until 8:30 (am) that morning to see if school had been cancelled and the University had said nothing,” Piacere said. “So I drove to school on slick back roads only to discover class was cancelled when I arrived.”

Piacere said an “all-call” or campus-wide alert system would suffice in notifying students of delays or cancellations.

“Red font on the homepage isn’t enough,” Piacere said, referring to weather warning messages on the campus website. “I’d like to see an inclement weather text message system or some sort of technology to let commuters know what’s going on.”

According to UNCP’s Safety and Health Manual on adverse weather, university officials are to decide when to close within 24 hours before or at 6 a.m. the day of inclement conditions.

Anthony Cromartie, 21, tunes in to News Channel 14 in Fayetteville for delays and admits to skipping class a few times due to bad weather and treacherous road conditions.

News Channel 14 is centered in Raleigh and one of five television stations that provides UNCP inclement weather information.

“Professors don’t take the commuter excuse but I still use it,” Cromartie said. “I’m not going to class when Interstate-95 is soaked. It’s not worth it for a 50-minute class. I just watch the news and see what’s up.”

Cromartie is a junior business major and transferred to UNCP from The University of North Carolina where he spent his freshman year.

“We would have class in the snow up there,” Cromartie said. “At Pembroke, a little rain could cancel class.”

He prefers living off-campus over staying in a dormitory, despite the 45-minute daily commute from Fayetteville.

- UNCP has had two cancellations this school year for classes due to inclement weather, including a snow and ice delay in January. Commuters are at the highest risk, driving on slick secondary roads from Fayetteville, Laurinburg, Lumberton and the surrounding areas to get to campus.