Opinion
Campus reacts positively to weather
March 8, 2007
After surviving the frigid cold snap of late January and early February, I was quite nervous last Wednesday. Every news teaser I saw was warning of an epic storm that would cover the Minnesota and Wisconsin area with massive amounts of snow.
What bothered me about this was the prospect of driving to UW-River Falls in a blizzard, because I am all too familiar with Pierce County’s inability to effectively plow roads, such as Highway 35 and my own 1050th street.
Fortunately for me, UWRF was on the ball and ready for the storm. As I was sent home early from work Thursday to ensure that I would have a chance of making it to my little farmhouse safely, I was terrified at the thought of driving my Ford Escort through that mess on Friday for classes. In fact, all I could hear in my head was a former professor of mine explaining the detriment of driving a Ford Escort, as he said, even a strong wind can almost blow your vehicle off the road. (This is absolutely true by the way.)
Thankfully, after a quick visit to the UWRF Web site, I saw the posting about class being canceled Thursday and that students were urged to use their best judgment on Friday. I have to commend those who were in charge of the decisions about last week’s weather. Thank you for putting the safety of students and faculty first and foremost, even though I am sure that shutting down the University for a day can pose quite a challenge. Canceling classes Thursday and allowing students to make their own call on whether or not to drive to UWRF on Friday was definitely the best decision to make as the snow accumulation on Friday totaled 12.2 inches in the metro area, according to Sven Sundgaard of Kare 11.
For those who live on campus or in the city of River Falls, making the trek to campus may have been a more realistic task; for those who commute, the prospect of braving winter’s worst storm so far was a daunting one. As for myself, I did not even have the option to contemplate driving on Friday because we did not get plowed out of our driveway until 2:00 that afternoon.
In fact, it is probably good that it happened this way because if I had the opportunity to go on Friday, I would have tried since one of my classes has a stringent attendance policy. More than likely, I would have ended up in the ditch or stuck in a snow bank because, while my faithful “white bullet” is great for gas mileage and sharp turns, it just cannot handle rain, snow, sleet or basically anything other than a dry road.
So, on my behalf and for all the other commuters at UWRF, thanks to everyone involved in making the right choices during last week’s storm and for following the guidelines of the inclement weather practice. It is good to know that UWRF takes the safety of its students and faculty so seriously.