OUR OPINION: At the very least, the University should have delayed classes yesterday, as local roads were slick and the worst part of the storm hit in the same time frame as most classes.

The administration has TVs and Internet and knew we would have some accumulation of sleet and snow on our local roads and sidewalks.

It decided to neglect this widely spread information and required students to trudge to class in the rare wintry mix.

Around 8:30 a.m., roads all over campus started turning white, and as the morning loomed on, conditions became more and more slippery.

This isn’t about having a holiday from class or throwing snowballs on Owen Beach. It is about safety.

We acknowledge that schools up north don’t cancel class unless there is at least a foot of snow on the ground – but we live in the South.

Locals aren’t used to driving in treacherous conditions. In fact, Raleighites are terrible at it – flash back two years when a thin sheet of ice shut down campus and surrounding roads in less than an hour.

Of course, hindsight is 20/20, and clearly there was no reason to close the University all day because it started raining around noon and everything melted – but why take the risk?

This is the real-world, and there are real consequences. There is no reset button.

Raleigh has gotten better over the years at managing icy conditions. Roads are now pre-salted and there are more snowplows.

However, nothing beats experience when it comes to navigating slippery roads, and unless Raleigh wants to set up snow simulations to train drivers, we aren’t going to get better.

The best solution is to play it safe – delay classes until it is clear that there isn’t a significant amount of ice on the roadways.

Sure, UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke, which are both west of here and had worse conditions, remained on normal schedule, but that means they toyed with students’ lives even worse.

Meredith College and Wake County Public Schools recognized the risk and took proper precaution.

Class is never important enough to risk anyone’s well-being, and that goes beyond students. If a Wolfline bus slides out of control, there is a potential for damage to both lives and property.

Let’s not forget about the adverse weather policy, which allows students to make their own decision as to whether it is safe enough to travel to class.

As for the administration and its apparent neglect of student safety, all it takes is one slip to create a real problem.