Penn State has canceled all on-campus work and activities, including in-person classes, through 5 a.m. on Friday, February 19, due to forecasted snowfall, the university announced early Thursday morning.

In-person classes that would normally begin before 5 a.m. Friday won’t be held, but some hybrid or asynchronous classes could continue online. The university will allow professors to move affected classes to an asynchronous format, too.

This semester, Penn State’s guidance on classes during unexpected campus is as follows:

• COVID In-Person (CP) courses that begin prior to 10 a.m. on Tuesday will not be held. Instructors may choose to offer content asynchronously.
• If a Hybrid/COVID Mixed-Mode (CM) course is scheduled to meet in person during the cancellation period, instructors should give serious consideration to meeting asynchronously. As with CP courses, the instructor may choose to offer content asynchronously or cancel class altogether.
• COVID Remote (CR) courses may continue to meet remote synchronously at the usual time, or the instructor may choose to offer content asynchronously or cancel class altogether.
• Web and COVID Remote Asynchronous (CW) courses will continue with no changes.

Additionally, all University Park COVID-19 testing sites will be closed until 5 a.m. Friday. Anyone who signed up for a slot at the White Building that’s now canceled can get tested at any time after 5 a.m. Friday.

Only Penn State employees who perform “essential services” should come to campus as directed by their supervisors. More specific guidance and nitty-gritty details for Penn State employees are included in a recently released university press release.

According to AccuWeather, University Park could receive up to 6 or 8 inches of snow by Friday morning. With temperatures hanging around in the upper 20s, persistent ice could make on-campus surfaces slippery, too.