Class cancellations cloudy with a chance of slush

  During my college selection process, I desired to attend a school where I didn’t have to wear a jacket, could walk to the beach and soak up the sun. However, Keene is just the opposite of that. Even though I love Keene State College, it’s the weather here that makes me say to myself over and over again, “Why did I choose to go to school in New England?”

The one advantage to having crazy New England weather, besides the beautiful scenery, is the gift of a snow day. Recently, we have had three big storms: Feb. 16, also known as ‘the whiteout,’  Feb. 24, which I’ll refer to as ‘the slush pool,’ and Feb. 25 which was not snow but extreme rain. It seems every time my friends- or anyone I talk to here about an upcoming snow storm- immediately assume classes will be cancelled and on-campus businesses will be closed.

Although, it’s not surprising that after these three storms my friends and classmates have no hope for the future regarding curtailed operations. The whiteout storm was perfectly themed to go with the White Out basketball game against Plymouth State University that evening. I must say, it was disappointing to get up at 7 a.m. with hope for a snow day and see every school in Keene besides our college getting cancelled. As the snow started to fall down that day, some teachers started cancelling classes. However, operations were not curtailed, which meant the college remained open.

As the weather got worse, one of my teachers questioned why some students were missing in class and those students turned out to be commuters. On the KSC Web site, there was a message essentially excusing commuters that couldn’t make it to class. But, if you miss more than a certain number of classes, you can be penalized and miss a lot of work. A fellow commuter in my class still made it, but she almost crashed her car about four  times along the way and had a mental break down.

Other commuters in class proceeded to tell me the roads were so bad there was no way they were going to class regardless of the homework assignment due. It’s ironic that the same night of this storm the basketball game and White Out fundraiser still took place. The “slush storm” was the debacle that riled students up the most. I woke up that morning with a text message which read, “Make sure you wear your rain boots, the campus is a giant slush pool.” On my way to meet my friend for class, I spotted her walking down Appian Way resembling  a wet dog. She proceeded to pant like a dog, getting worked up and saying  to the teacher in class, “I am taking my shoes off in class since my shoes are filled with slush.” Then the rumors started to fly. The president was on vacation and the person filling in for her was too.

Who was in charge, then? And more importantly, why was our safety in jeopardy again after the experience of the previous whiteout storm? After the snow stopped and the slush melted, a little “hurricane”  decided to pass through the college campus. I decided to go to the gym, not realizing it meant  having  to leap over the bushes near the entrance like a frog. This resulted in  the sidewalks  filling up  with water that went up to my knees and  very strong winds. Oh, and the power went out. A classmate went right to the teacher and said, “Do you enjoy having class in bad weather?”  He responded,  “Hey, I don’t make the rules to cancel class. I just do what I am told.”

This lead me to think, having snow or rain doesn’t really matter; some classes are still going to be in session and some people will still have to go to work. Then it hit me. Whoever decides  whether to curtail operations or not when we get slammed by  the next storm, please consider students and not  just staff and faculty. Think about commuters or the unfortunate people forced  to “swim” through  Brickyard Pond to get to class. 


Kristyn Bellino can be contacted at kbellino@keeneequinox.com.