Marshall University closed campus Monday after winter storm Octavia arrived and intensified sooner than expected.

Ginny Painter, senior vice president for communications and marketing, is part of the committee that decides what actions to take during inclement weather and also has a hand in delivering the message to the community.

Painter said committee members decided Sunday evening to have a conference call at 5:30 a.m. to decide Monday’s campus schedule.

Painter said the forecast originally said it would begin snowing at 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. and intensify in the afternoon and evening, so the committee decided to keep campus on a regular schedule and reconvene at 10:30 a.m.

Because Octavia arrived earlier than expected, the meeting was moved to 9 a.m. The committee canceled classes beginning at 10 a.m. and closed campus offices at 11 a.m.

The notice was placed on the front page of Marshall’s website immediately.

Subscribers of the MU Alert emergency messaging system received text messages, e-mails and phone calls to notify them of the decision.

The original e-mail and text message alert was misleading.

Early messages sent to subscribers claimed the university was canceling all classes beginning at 3:30 p.m. and later Jan. 21.

Painter said the individual usually responsible for sending out the message was in a car on the way to the university when it came time to send the message. The haste of the situation required Painter to send out the information herself.

When preparing the message, Painter said she updated the telephone message but did not update the text or e-mail. This resulted in the temporary misinformation.

The flaw was discovered before the message was delivered to every recipient, and a correction e-mail was constructed and delivered immediately.

Tyler Ferris can be contacted at [email protected].