Inadequate snow removal left students with minimal parking and hazardous walking conditions.
By: Amanda Musto
With the half-assed attempt to get rid of the campus’ snow, one would have thought CSI was located in a city that has never seen snow before rather than one that’s hit almost every winter.
Since school was closed for the two days that followed February’s blizzard, it was expected that students and faculty would be able to return to campus with no issues. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case as everyone needed winter boots and snow mobiles to maneuver from the parking lots to their classrooms.
When the email came in Tuesday afternoon to inform students and staff to take extra time and precaution to get to campus due to the conditions, no one would have imagined the terrible conditions they were about to drive into on Wednesday. The areas that were said to have been prioritized looked like they were handled by one person with a shovel who was ready for their lunch break. The parking lots were still coated in snow, ice, and slush, which made parking spots non-existent and left students to make their own, with most becoming parallel spots due to all the snow pushed to the back of the parking lines. With the snow in half of the spot, if cars parked in them normally, the lanes would have become impassable, after they already became one-way rows due to this.
The most puzzling part of the parking lot situation was why was the snow pushed into parking spots at all? When on campus on Thursday, there were front loader construction trucks that scooped the snow off the sidewalks to throw onto the grassy areas next to them. So if that was a possibility for pathways, why not the lots? Students already face parking issues due to the limited spots in a lot, so it didn’t make sense to take spots away when the snow could have been moved and dumped onto the grass. The campus sits on 204 acres; I’m sure there was somewhere else the snow could have been pushed onto.
Once you find a spot, or should I say make a spot, then comes the trek to the classroom. Once again it was mentioned in the email that main pathways would be cleared, but upon arrival Wednesday, many were still untouched and covered with snow, and the ones that were done were only partially clear, still coated with layers of snow and slush. Many covered sidewalks had footprint paths from the students who trudged through the inches left behind just so they didn’t have to walk three buildings past their destination to find some aspect of a sidewalk. Not sure about the other students, but I slipped more than I would like to admit when I was on my way to class each day.
The biggest issue with the pathways being forgotten or half cleared off was the disregard to disabled students and staff that move around the campus. Someone using a wheelchair or crutches would not be able to get through the snow easily, if at all, and it made their journey to class dangerous, when it should never have been. On top of that, most entrances to the sidewalks were left blocked by the snow besides some curb areas instead of the wheelchair accessible openings. Even if that part wasn’t blocked, it was so poorly cleared and had a few inches of slush that it could make it difficult for them to get through. The safety of these students and faculty, as well as everyone else’s, was thrown out the window with the poor efforts of the campus being cleared.
Now I understand that in order to have the campus become snow free it takes time and all hands on deck and with short staffing and budget cuts, that can cause issues on that front, but this blizzard also wasn’t a surprise. The school had notice and time to prepare the manpower needed to get the job done. Another option could have been to keep the campus closed for one more day and classes remote on Wednesday like they were on Monday and Tuesday. No one is saying they have to give the students and staff a traditional, pre-covid snow day (although it would have been much appreciated), but another day of remote learning so that everyone could return to a safe campus on Thursday would have made more sense.
Unfortunately CSI dropped the ball on this one, and what felt like a lack of care or concern has become a hot topic of conversation across campus the past few days. Thankfully it seems we’re off the hook from blizzards until next winter, but hopefully the next time Snow Miser makes a visit to Staten Island, CSI will be better prepared.
