The Nor’Easter that dumped over a foot of snow finally ended yesterday, but not without affecting everyone’s life on campus.
While many local schools around the area shut down, Cornell University remained open and held classes, although some students and faculty hoped for a day off.
“I think they should have shut down today,” said Rebecca Meyer ’04.
Prof. Kent Hubbel ’69, architecture agreed. “I think everybody, including faculty, would like a day off,” Hubbel said. “There’s nothing like a snow day.”
All the snow made getting to class difficult for many students.
“It’s annoying walking in it,” said Gene Park ’02. “I have heard people have wiped out on the paths. Their legs shot out from underneath them,” he said.
Meyer said she too had difficulty walking.
“On west campus, the stairs weren’t cleared at all when I left [for classes],” she said. With all the snow “it takes a longer time to get places,” she added.
The grounds department has been working around the clock to keep the roads, sidewalks and parking lots clear. According to Dennis Osika ’64, director of the grounds department, there are 26 miles of sidewalks to clear.
“We try to do our best, but we can’t be everywhere at once,” Osika said.
“I know it has been an inconvenience and I encourage people to be patient. Other institutions have closed but we are still operational and it’s a challenge,” Osika added.
The snow also affected some dinning units on campus, including Cascadelli, which has been shut down for the past two days.
“Because of the layout of the county, people [staff] can’t get in [to Cornell],” said Barbra Snell, manager at Okenshields.
“Some people were late, some people were early and some didn’t come,” said Snell. As a result, the staff needed to be consolidated “to serve the most people we can.” The lack of staff therefore required Cascadelli to shut down.
The storm also appeared to have an impact on the Spring 2001 Elections and campaigning candidates for the Student Assembly.
“The original plan has been to hand out quarter cards early in the morning, but the stream of people is limited because of the snow,” said Josh Roth ’03.
Early in the day, the election turn out seemed to be down because of the snow.
“Right now, it appears too early to tell, but it appears down,” said Michael Hanson ’01, who was at one election site working for the Registrar’s Office.
Ryan Horn ’02 saw this to his advantage. “I have a core group of committed people who have voted for me before; they have come out before; and they will come out in this,” he said.
Faculty and student reaction to the snow was mixed.
“I love the weather. It’s festive. It introduces variety,” Hubbel said.
“It provides the opportunity for snowball fights and fun. It’s also quite
pretty,” Meyer said.
“I think it’s time we got this big dumping of snow since we have had a weak winter. The entire wither hasn’t met my expectations of what winter in Ithaca would be like, but this weekend has,” said Goeff Zoref ’04, a student who was snowboarding on Libe Slope.
However, one student didn’t like the snow at all.
“I hate it. I think it sucks. I’m not doing any skiing or snowboarding, so I don’t see anything good about it,” said Terence Ho ’02.
“I thought it was supposed to be spring. This isn’t spring,” he added.
Archived article by Luke Hejnar