The Westville campus was closed due to a boil-water order on Jan. 16-17, while the Hammond campus remained open.

Brian Miller, director of Public Safety, said campus closings are decided on a case-by-case basis by Chancellor Thomas Keon.

Miller said that when deciding whether to close a campus, campus police looks at each campus separately, and that there is not a policy in place on how the campuses should be closed.

“Both campuses would be closed if [the boil-water order] affected both campuses, but it only affected the Westville campus,” Miller said.

At the Faculty Senate meeting on Jan. 12, Janusz Duzinkiewicz, associate professor of history and philosophy, said he was concerned about the decision-making process of closing one campus.

Duzinkiewicz said that in Westville, it was snowing and he felt it was dangerous for campus to be open. He contacted the City of Hammond and was told that it was sunny in Hammond.

“We’re going to decide if the Westville campus is closed based on if the Hammond campus is sunny or not?” Duzinkiewicz said.

The inter-campus bus service was also suspended while the Westville campus was closed. Miller said campus police received phone calls from a few students saying they did not have transportation to the Hammond campus.

“We did receive two calls from students letting us know they could not make it to campus,” Miller said. “I’m sure that it did affect some students, but it did not affect the majority.”

Tom Fath, vice president of Westville’s Town Council and Utilities Liaison, said Westville experienced a loss of water pressure early in the morning of Jan. 15. He said that lost pressure in the pumps caused a loss of control of the pumps. The pumps were turned off and a boil-water advisory notice was issued.

“In the short term, the town utilities department has found a solution and is investigating additional upgrades to the systems,” Fath said.

Fath said the Westville campus water is provided by the South Coast Conservancy District.

Fath said the water had to be tested for signs of bacteria.

“There were two rounds of water samples taken over a 48-hour period, which were sent to a lab,” Fath said.

Miller said while the water was being tested, his concern was that the students, faculty and staff had safe water on campus. He said the Westville campus had to be closed because of that.

“The Westville campus had no potable water,” Miller said. “Both campuses would have been closed if there was a snow storm, for example, because both campuses would be directly affected. We’re always looking to make sure that our faculty, staff and students are protected and we ensure that whenever we make a decision on closing a campus.”