By Noel Bailey, Managing Editor of Publication Design; Photo Credits Jaidyn Steinbrecher
If you didn’t already know from looking out your window, walking around campus or trying to drive anywhere; a snowstorm hit Selinsgrove. As college students, most of us don’t have shovels lying around or bags of salt sitting in our dorms, so it is the University’s responsibility to make campus safe enough for us to get from point A to point B.
Here in Selinsgrove, we were hit with around 15 inches of snow. Everyone knew the storm was coming; it was all anyone talked about until it finally arrived.
So how did the University handle it?
Like most things, there were good parts and not‑so‑good parts. Personally, I feel like Susquehanna was more on top of plowing the roads and shoveling sidewalks than I expected. When I woke up and went outside with my roommate, most of the main paths already had some kind of walkable route. And this was on the very first day of the storm, while it was still actively snowing.
Over the next couple of days, more paths cleared up, salt was put down, and the roads became pretty drivable. But could you get your car out of your parking spot? No.
They did plow the parking lots, and yes, I know facilities can’t get close to our cars, so the snow isn’t magically going to disappear from behind them. But the way the lots were plowed pushed all the snow from the main road directly behind my car, leaving a pile as tall as the car itself.
This wasn’t the end of the world, but it was definitely annoying. Everyone had to call Campus Safety for a shovel and then walk to pick it up. I live close by, so it wasn’t too bad, but for students on the other side of campus, I’m sorry you had to make that trek. Students also had to exchange their student IDs for a shovel, so there was no going back to the dorm for a break.
It’s now been a week since the snowstorm, and there’s still snow everywhere. Not to mention that the ground has gotten icier each day as temperatures drop.
In the Student Government Association (SGA) meetings, the topic of facilities getting a little “lazy” now that they think the storm cleanup is “done” has come up. After we brought it up, our facilities’ liaison passed the concerns along, and more salt has been put down on walkways. But near Selinsgrove Hall, things still seem messy. There are piles of salt with traffic cones marking that there’s too much salt, which I am a little confused about why.
The Writers Institute walkway has also been mentioned because it hasn’t been walkable, and it seemed like facilities forgot about that area entirely. But since these issues were raised in SGA, things do seem to be getting fixed and cleared more consistently across campus.
I hope facilities continues to stay on top of things. I know their job is difficult, but I don’t think they always realize how big of an inconvenience it is for students when walkways are icy, blocked or just hard to get through during our daily schedules.