Despite the blizzard, residence halls and dining halls are striving to function normally.

Melanie Pridemore, resident director of Hopkins Residence Hall, said that all staff who live in the residence halls are expected to help out, but so far everything is running quite smoothly.

“There are some other people in our department who live outside who didn’t need to come in, the non-essential staff,” Pridemore said.

The non-essential staff in the Hopkins Residence Hall includes both salaried and hourly workers. Pridemore said that she was notified by e-mail before the University e-mail actually went out to students this morning.

“They sent us the e-mail to make sure all the right people were in all the right places,” she said.

Nathaniel Mohler, resident director of Hendrick House, said that their dining hall is up and running but it took a little work to make that happen.

“We had some of the management stay in town overnight. And we’ve had enough people on hand to run most of the service,” he said.

Pridemore said that the Hopkins Dining Hall was doing “an excellent job today” and that they were “functioning normally.”

“We were contacted by the Director of Housing and the Assistant Director for Residential Help and told we were supposed to be available for later assistance in the dining halls as needed,” Pridemore said.

Pridemore also was assured that the dining halls in the Six-Pack are well equipped, should the inclement weather have an impact on food deliveries.

“As far as I know I think they will still be fine. Our dining managers are on top of things. They are prepared for things like this to happen especially in the winter.” she said.

Mohler said that Hendrick House does not have any maintenance personnel in today and that they have a limited staff, but things are still running pretty smoothly.

Pridemore said that both maintenance and building services workers are in the Six-Pack today, but not everyone was required to come if it was unsafe. She said the facilities workers are doing a great job making sure doorways are cleared and floors are not slippery.

“I think that they have a great system worked out. They aren’t going to force anyone to be in unsafe conditions. Most of the people that I have seen on a usual basis are here today,” Pridemore said.

Pridemore said she had been outside a few times today and was able to move between buildings surrounding the Six-Pack.

“Facilities are doing a great job, considering the amount of snow,” she said.