Hunter Wilson/Daily NewsChris Hunnewell, a Western Kentucky University freshman from Bowling Green, walks past the Colonnade in front of the Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center on Tuesday following an overnight ice storm.Click here to see more photos of the ice and snow.

Western Kentucky University has only officially closed two days in the past 12 years for weather conditions, with today being no exception to the norm.

WKU President Gary Ransdell said a diligent process takes place prior to canceling classes.

“We’ve got (5,000) students living in the residence halls,” Ransdell said. “You can’t just shut down classes unless absolutely necessary because if you do, you have a different range of problems … they’re going to get out and history has shown us that more accidents occur when you close campus than when students are going to class.”

On Tuesday morning student Victoria Talbert was hit by a falling tree branch while walking behind Grise Hall. Ransdell said Talbert was treated at The Medical Center and released without any serious injuries.

Despite the “unexpected twist of events,” Ransdell said he thinks officials made the right call in maintaining business as usual.

Ransdell said he was relieved after visiting with Talbert in the hospital and realizing she would be OK.

While evening classes were canceled on the main campus around noon Tuesday, many were surprised that morning classes were in session Tuesday and today.

Provost Barbara Burch and John Osborne, vice president for campus services and facilities, said they begin monitoring the weather forecasts and conditions in the middle of the night before consulting with campus police and the facilities director about the conditions on campus.

Burch said a determination to hold classes is usually made by 5:30 a.m. only after facility officials have monitored the campus roads and sidewalks throughout the night and the campus police chief has coordinated with local and state police about driving conditions.

As for the extended campuses, Burch said main campus officials only control the closing of the Glasgow location while the Owensboro and Elizabethtown campuses follow the determinations made by officials with Kentucky Community and Technical Colleges.

Burch said evening classes are canceled by 1 p.m. after “constant monitoring” of conditions and forecasts. The campus communications department is then instructed to begin contacting the media, sending mass text messages and posting the campus status online.

The provost said she thinks the majority of faculty and staff made it in despite the weather Tuesday, but hopes everyone traveling to campus uses their own discretion to determine if they will be safe coming to work or class.

“Our staff is like the post office, they feel if class can be held and they can do it, they’ll be here,” she said. “But we ask that everyone put their personal safety first.”

Jessica Williams, a junior from Bowling Green, said she stayed in bed Tuesday watching the weather reports in anticipation that her 8 a.m. class would be canceled. After leaving her first class, Williams said she saw Talbert lying on the ground as College of Business officials tended to her with coats and jackets until medical officials carried her away on a gurney.

After braving the canopies of ice-encrusted trees and windy rains to get to class, she said conditions didn’t seem bad enough to cancel school because no one could predict a fallen tree limb.

“I can see why they didn’t think anything would happen, but to think one incident happened and someone could have been seriously injured,” she said. “But I don’t blame them for not canceling class, it’s just the situation is very unfortunate.”

Alfrod Beck, a senior from Louisville, was less convinced that the school should have opened. Beck said he saw people falling on their way to class and as a commuter, doesn’t see the need to put students at risk to travel.

“It’s insult to injury to have one of my fellow students injured because they didn’t stop class,” he said. “Other universities across the state have had delays because of weather.”

Beck said he was surprised that attendance in classes seemed high.

“With it being the first week of class, a lot of people were sucking it up and going,” he said.