Commuting in the winter

Amber Potter discusses the recent winter weather, the effect it has had on commuting students and the emergency alert system on campus, IRIS. Photo by Ariana Hansen.
Amber Potter discusses the recent winter weather, the effect it has had on commuting students and the emergency alert system on campus, IRIS. Photo by Ariana Hansen.

I am learning a lot about our college since the weather has changed.

The most important thing that I have learned is that our emergency alert system could use some improvement.

Recently, when the college was on a two-hour delay many students were up and ready for class, and many commuters were already on campus for early classes.

I was one of the commuters that was already on campus for an eight o’clock class. I was not very happy about the situation, to say the least.

I do not understand why our board waited so long to put school on a delay. If they did it to keep students safe, then they wasted their time.

It was way too close to eight o’clock to call a delay. We should have just gone on into class that morning.

The winter months in general make commuting more complicated. Whether there is snow, frost, rain or ice, things get slowed down. More travel time is required to get from point a to point b. You also have to give your car time to defrost, scrape your windows and account for ice on the roads.

This means that your time management skills have to be perfect in order to be on campus and in class on time. Winter commuting causes many late days.

With the roads on campus as unpredictable as they are, you might be able to get to campus all right, but once you get there you never know.

I love living at home, but it is stressful when you have to fight the weather to get to campus. The roads are not always safe, and while our campus is mostly residential, faculty and staff do not need to forget about us commuters.

I believe that our administration needs to get it together a bit more. Last year many people broke laptops and some were seriously injured because classes were still going on in the snow and ice.

Commuting in the winter is not fun nor is it easy. I wish that more people could understand that while I do not want to get behind, sometimes it is just unsafe to come to campus.

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