Oh, you mean you haven’t seen that SIX FEET TALL SNOWBANK OUTSIDE?
I returned to Boston on January 10th, narrowly escaping the snowstorm in Texas, which almost canceled my flight. Two days later, I had to deal with a blizzard in Boston. Of course.
Since classes started, we have had I believe three snowstorms thus far. But this is not the time to count how many snowstorms passed through New England already. There is one coming our way as I type this, and it’s going to drop yet another 12-15 inches of snow.
Where will we put all the snow??? The snowbanks outside are already taller and bigger than me. And dear God, please don’t let the roofs of any buildings I’m in collapse. In the end, I did see that video of the Vikings stadium. I believe the Cowboys stadium is struggling a bit as well. But…
I think the better question is, how is Boston handling this?
City of Boston has proven itself quite capable of clearing the sidewalks and improving road conditions. Sometimes sidewalks in Allston don’t exactly welcome pedestrians, and you have to resort to walking side by side with cars. But I know that responsibility falls to landlords, so no point in blaming the city for the inconvenience.
If you look at downtown Boston, you can see a little bit of concrete under all this snow, and people are out and about.
Boston University, on the other hand, I’m sad to say I am disappointed. Before I delve in further, I do have to say, however, that I appreciate all the B&G staff out there clearing the sidewalks. It is hard work, and it’s COLD out there.
But what is the point of having our B&G staff out there from 1 a.m. to 8 a.m. fighting the losing battle against the huge snowflakes and the windchill? No matter what they do, snow continues to come. So we have those workers out there, at night, in the freezing temperature, ATTEMPTING to do something just so BU can open two hours late?
B&G probably receives overtime pay for working that awful “clear the snow throughout the night” shift. Is that really financially responsible?
As a BU student who’s almost running out of work-study award, I am struggling to find an on-campus office that will pay me with their own BU funding. Almost all offices rely on work-study to pay their student workers, and when the award runs out, oops, sorry, you gotta go. Sorry I pay $50,000 per year for my education and sorry I need money for groceries, textbooks and materials for my resume reel. Instead of wasting money on B&G projects that get you nowhere, how about you increase funding for student employees?
If you’re committed on clearing the snow no matter what so we can continue our normal days, why is crossing the BU Bridge absolutely impossible? Snowbanks are in place of the little islands where pedestrians stand while waiting for the green light. Not to mention, the narrow sidewalk is absolutely deadly with thousands of students attempting to walk.
Today, for example, a steady snow fall worsened sidewalk & road conditions throughout the day. Boston University is a WALKING campus. We walk to classes; we walk to the GSU; we walk to the library just so we can print our assignments.
BU did not say a word about early closings or safety concerns until around 2 p.m. when it announced, the university will close at 5 p.m. In the meantime, other area institutions had canceled afternoon activities earlier in the day.
Even now, as we are expecting another foot of snow to come in the next couple of hours, we hear nothing from BU.
Students have no idea who makes the decision whether BU stays open or not, nor do they know what kind of factors go into consideration. How about more open communication? How about actually telling us where we can expect MBTA delays? At least tell us everything is still open, so plan ahead and leave early. Be careful on the road. Administrators may have fancy cars, so all they have to do is take the elevator down to their car, hop in the car and drive away. But we students have to brave the storm and walk.
As of 11:38 p.m. weather forecast:
Most recent announcement from Gov. Deval Patrick:
And area school closings (scroll all the way down for college info):
http://boston.cbslocal.com/closings/
Safe to say many people are truly concerned about this snowstorm? Yes. Safe to say many people will have tomorrow off for safety reasons? Yes. Safe to say Boston University students will enjoy the same day off? Doubtful.
I would love to know what exactly the school loses by having one snow day, and really, more than anything, I would love to know who and what decides whether we have a 2-hour delay, or we are closed for the day.
Yoojin Cho 