Inclement Weather and Emergency Operations Guidelines

This website has been developed by the Office of the Provost, Deans, Academic Policies Committee of the Faculty Senate, the Center for Teaching Excellence, and other key stakeholders to accompany the SMU inclement weather policy to make clear how inclement weather class cancellations and make-up work will be approached.

Policy 9.12 guides SMU campus operations in the case of inclement weather and emergency operations and stipulates that the President of the University is the only person authorized to decide to alter campus operations.

  • During inclement weather and emergency class cancellations, all undergraduate courses and most graduate classes (with the exceptions listed below) must be cancelled and may not shift to technology-enhanced modes of learning.
  • For making up any missed contact hours that result from cancelled classes, all missed contact hours must be made-up through asynchronous instruction. There will not be formal, synchronous, in-person make-up class meetings scheduled for inclement weather events, and class meetings on the reading day are not permitted, per policy. 

For the unique circumstances guiding academic continuity of specific graduate and professional programs, as well as fully online programs and executive weekend programs, each school/college has specific exceptions listed below.

Please note that the "Fully Online Graduate and Professional Programs" policies for inclement weather supersede all other school/college operations. For additional questions regarding school specific policies, please continue to the "School/College specific policies" section.

Fully Online Graduate and Professional Programs

All fully online programs will continue to meet as scheduled. In extenuating circumstances (e.g., if students or faculty are impacted by power outages), alternative arrangements will be made between the faculty and students.


School/College specific policies

For classes comprising of working professionals where the courses are on a different curricular schedule, faculty and students will move to an online format as specified by the school guidelines. Only specific courses will be impacted, and these will be communicated by each school to its faculty and students.

All graduate courses and programs will follow the same procedures as stated for the undergraduate courses during campus closures, with no exceptions.

For classes comprising of working professionals where the courses are on a different curricular schedule, faculty and students will move to an online format as specified by the school guidelines. Only specific courses may shift to online modalities during university cancellations, and these will be communicated in writing to students: (1) 1L legal writing courses; (2) courses taught by adjunct faculty members; (3) large enrollment classes that cannot be rescheduled easily; and (4) classes of long duration.

All graduate courses and programs will follow the same procedures as stated for the undergraduate courses during campus closures, with one exception: for team game development courses and project-based mentoring courses that are pedagogically designed to maximize online collaboration and video-conferencing for student collaboration and faculty feedback.

All graduate courses and programs will follow the same procedures as stated for the undergraduate courses during campus closures, with one exception: weekend executive format classes. These courses will shift to technology-enhanced means.

All graduate courses and programs will follow the same procedures as stated for the undergraduate courses during campus closures, with no exceptions.

Note: For unique decisions about weekend events and performances, the dean will work closely with the President and EOC to determine appropriate conditions for closure.

All fully online programs in the Moody School will continue to meet as scheduled. In extenuating circumstances (e.g., if students or faculty are impacted by power outages), alternative arrangements will be made between the faculty and students.

All graduate courses and programs will follow the same procedures as stated for the undergraduate courses during campus closures, with two exceptions: 1) online courses or the online portion of hybrid courses (alternative arrangements for synchronous scheduled times will be made between the faculty and students when either are impacted by power outages) and 2) in-person courses scheduled to be taught at other locations, assuming the weather conditions in those locations permit continuity.

All graduate courses and programs will follow the same procedures as stated for the undergraduate courses during campus closures, with one exception: weekend executive format classes. These courses will shift to technology-enhanced means.