Jaclyn Peiser
Editor-in-Chief
I love snow days. I love waking up to that glorious text message from Goucher College informing me that campus is closed and classes are canceled. I love opening up my alarm clock app and simply swiping from “on” to “off.” I love cozying up in a sweatshirt and sweatpants, drinking tea, and watching Netflix as the snow falls outside my window.
But it’s after these glorious class-free days when the allure of snow slowly plummets and we all remember what terrible inconveniences snow brings to our daily lives.
Like many students at Goucher, my car was completely blockaded by a wall of deep snow on top of a coat of ice. The plows that cleared the roads made it easier for people to drive through campus, but nearly impossible for students to move their cars. I checked up on my car, which was parked in the Froelicher lot, on Friday afternoon, and simply turned around in frustration and defeat when I realized there was no way I was taking my car out.
It wasn’t until Saturday afternoon, when my friend and I had enough cabin fever, that we decided to dig my car out. One shovel, courtesy of Public Safety, one ice-scraper, and an hour and a half later, we finally got my car out of the spot.
I know I am not the only one who had to endure this terrible ordeal. I still see cars on campus that are blocked from the snow. But what troubled me the most is that I didn’t see much progress on the snow/ice clean-up since last Friday. I saw a small plow in the SRC parking lot this past Monday morning but I didn’t see anyone doing something about the seriously dangerous ice-covered sidewalks. It was almost impossible to walk through the quad, to the SRC, or to various parking lots without encountering massive patches of ice.
Where was the salt? Where was the sand? Why hadn’t anything been done about this? These sidewalks were extremely dangerous. Goucher is a residential campus – students walk to class, work, dining halls, and their rooms. We are filled with pedestrians who can easily slip and fall. This is a huge liability.
So, what went wrong here? Why didn’t the plowers do a better job? Why was there no salt or sand covering the ice-death-traps?
But even with these inconveniences, it is worth mentioning the FMS and Bon Appetit workers who braved the storm to cater to our needs. I just wish that the school took the after-math more seriously and thought critically about campus post winter storm. The ice was a serious accident waiting to happen. This entire week I’ve been crossing my fingers hoping I’m not the next one to slip and fall.
Categories: Opinion
The Quindecim 