For the past few days, Tarleton State University has experienced many closures and delays due to the ice storm. Being that this occurred during a crucial week in the semester, not only students, but professors were on the edge about getting their finals done.

When Tarleton sent out a Code Purple alert on Monday evening, the director of Risk Management and Safety, Kent Styron, also sent an email to the entire university stating that all Tarleton locations would be closed Tuesday.

A Tarleton professor, Stephen McReynolds, replied with, “This is STUPID why are you doing this.”

Within a few minutes, students went to social media and began trending hash tags such as #McReynoldsForPresident and #IAgreeSteve.’

When asked if McReynolds was aware that he was sending an email to the whole university he replied, “yup.”

McReynolds has been an anatomy and animal biology instructor at Tarleton for 26 years.

McReynolds has a Facebook account, but not a Twitter. So, when students began “tweeting” about him, his daughter showed him the tweets.

When asked what he thought about the hash tag #McReynoldsForPresident he said it’s all “social media silliness.”

Kathryn Sanders tweeted, “90% of my twitter feed is all about that email that ‪#McReynolds replied to. ‪#TarletonState.”

Morgan Heckel tweeted, “I heard McReynolds hair is insured for $10,000 ‪#IAgreeSteve ‪#McReynoldsForPresident.”

Students began to reference the situation to other popular trends in the media such as Miley Cyrus’s hit songs.

Colton Driver tweeted, “Safe to say McReynolds came in like a wrecking ball? ‪#finalsweekfiasco ‪#McReynolds.”

Julia Mathews tweeted, “Now when I listen to We Can’t Stop, I think of ‪#McReynolds! ‪#WeWontStop.”

Other students compared it to the trending movie “The Hunger Games.”

Taylor Henson posted on Facebook, “The Tarleton students have started an uproar, and word on social media sites is that a Hunger Games 3 is on the rise. Luckily, our district has had a brave soul volunteer to be tribute. The brave professor going by Steven McReynolds sent out on email in reply to classes being rescheduled declaring, and I quote, ‘This is STUPID why are you doing this’. This message was not only sent out to faculty and staff, but every student who has a TSU email. Tarleton students (now declaring themselves as District 12 via Twitter) have started trends such as #thisisSTUPID #IAgreeSteve and #McReynoldsForPresident to show their tribute support.”

Since the university is open today and finals are taking place, McReynolds has interacted with some students. He stated the response he has received was mostly “thank you” or “you’re awesome.”

 “I perhaps should have been more verbose,” McReynolds said. “I remember when they used to close some of the doors to the science bldg because of ice. I remember greater emphasis on finding a way to keep the university open as in safety and academics. Now it seems like we are looking for an excuse to close.

“I should note that I personally commute from Fort Worth and I had done so that day, the roads were fine.  The sidewalks were a safety issue that should have been fixed. I am wondering if the problem is that so much campus maintenance has now been out-sourced and the contractors are worried about profit not academics. Put a northerner in charge of keeping campus open.”

Vice president of Student Life Rusty Jergins said to the Stephenville Empire Tribune, “It’s unfortunate the weather happened right in the middle of finals, but I think we have been able to maintain the safety and well-being of everyone and that has been the first and foremost of our concern.”