Cornell announced the second snow day of the academic year — after some had already made it up the slope, arrived on central campus and sat through their first classes of the day.
Last Spring, a graduating senior from my former high school in Los Angeles reached out to me for advice. He was torn between two college choices: University of California, Los Angeles and Cornell. He told me that as a California resident, he most fears the difficult adjustment to Cornell’s frigid winters. When he asked me about my experience, I told him, truthfully, that I still have trouble with Ithaca’s cold weather and went on to discuss Cornell’s other pros and cons. He ended up picking UCLA.
Amid a Winter Storm Watch and a day off from classes, Cornellians received an extra-long Thanksgiving break with the first snow day of the school year.
As students trek back to campus after Thanksgiving Break, Cornell’s Ithaca campus is under a Winter Storm Watch from Sunday until Monday night. Approximately eight to 12 inches of snow are expected to hit Ithaca starting Sunday morning. Multiple transportation services have made inclement weather changes for weekend travelers. The company OurBus canceled all its Sunday trips to Ithaca and added additional Saturday trips, according to 14850.com. Coach USA’s Shortline Ithaca Platinum service rescheduled all Sunday departures to leave between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. Other Shortline buses leaving from New York City on Sunday will only operate between 8 a.m. to 10:15 a.m, according to the service’s website.
The Faculty Senate posed questions to the Cornell community regarding the University’s inclement weather policy following a week of severe weather punctuated by a student-led petition to cancel classes, burst pipes across campus and temperatures dropping below zero.
President Martha Pollack plans to keep Cornell open Thursday despite a wind chill warning, dozens of emails and a petition with thousands of signatures. It’s not the first time Pollack has faced criticism for defying the cold.
What are you listening to as you trek through the snowy campus in this weather? With Ithaca facing record-setting low temperatures, it’s likely that you are not rocking some rock n’ roll.
With Ithaca’s wind chill projected to reach as low as minus 21 degrees overnight, TCAT announced that the bus service will offer free rides for all routes on Thursday.