Winter Weather Snow Stops Everything Except Late Longwood

Longwood students pay good money for their classes and I am no exception. I actually enjoy class most of the time. I came to Longwood to learn and that's what I aim to do, which is good because that's what the university expects all of us to do. The past few days were no exception-however, if you haven't noticed we had a little bit of snow. I understand a school has to keep running, but when a large portion of your student body cannot get to campus safely, it's probably not a good idea to tell them they have to be there.

I am talking of course of the [number] commuter students who travel in from out of town, live in Sunchase or Longwood Village (like me). All of whom had to drive to campus for class or find some other way of getting there because the Farmville Area Bus (FAB) was nowhere to be found.

Longwood put the Winter Weather Advisory on the website at longwood.edu explaining the FAB would not be running Saturday. It did not indicate the FAB would not be running on Sunday either, which would not have mattered but Longwood kept the weekend's basketball games on schedule, which I had to work at. I am glad the games still happened because the schedule would have been thrown out of whack and I made a little money after getting rides to and from campus.

I would have driven myself from the Village, but a series of hilarious incidents (if they hadn't happened to me) kept that from being possible. The first being asked to park in a different place at lower ground (where the ice gathered.) with the promise the higher ground would be plowed and snow shovels would be provided to help us dig our cars out. Well, the lower lots were plowed first early in the morning, so we were walled in and the ice packed tighter behind the vehicles. The promised snow shovels were not available, because the club house was not open before 11 a.m.

In spite of many annoyances, the plow operators were very helpful all day in assisting those trying to get their vehicles out of the snow and ice.

All day Sunday I witnessed at least a dozen near accidents, which led me to believe campus would be closed Monday-nope.

At approximately 5:02 p.m. Sunday, students received this message from Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. Tim Pierson:

"Longwood Community: All classes, activities and services will open at normally scheduled hours Monday, February 1, 2010."

At that moment I looked out my window at the Village, laughing at all the snow still there, knowing for a fact there was no way I was going to get to campus safely. I also pondered how many liability suits Longwood was about to be slapped with.

At approximately 8:07 p.m. that same day, Pierson sent students this message:

"Longwood Community: The University has received additional information from the Virginia Departments of Emergency Management and Transportation and after further evaluation it has been decided it is in the best interest of the University Community to open at 10:00 a.m., Monday, February 1, 2010. Please give yourself additional time to arrive on campus and to class safely. Have a good evening."

I, of course, was not surprised but wondered why it was still opening so early worrying it was too early. My fears were justified Monday when I got to the ice-covered campus, with bulldozers still out moving snow off sidewalks and walkways. The bulldozers damaged the concrete by the way. I saw massive scratch marks near the library in several spots. I am kind of curious who is expected to pay for that damage. Anyway, if crews are needed to doze ice and snow off walkways, when the students are expected to go to class, then they probably shouldn't have had to go to class in the first place.

The dozers weren't the last I saw of construction on campus Monday. Several men could be seen managing the Bedford reconstruction site. I hope they got hazard pay because I saw one man fall down that icy hill at least four times, once riding it standing up all the way down (he's actually my hero for that one). The workers were removing snow from the site by lifting up the massive tarps they had laid down before the storm. This of course was not very effective because the snow just fell off the tarp onto the ground, which will eventually make the site soggy and muddy, but that has nothing to do with students.

Entering the ground floor of Grainger proved to be dangerous for some as an icy patch right by the door was invisible. A sign was posted later in the day, but only after many students fell right on their bottoms slipping on the ice when they had to get to class at 10 a.m. Falling snow and ice was a concern for many other students entering other buildings as the temperature did warm slightly melting large patches high above the ground.

By afternoon, the campus had begun to thaw, leaving water everywhere which got me thinking about the ice it would turn into that night. It seems Longwood got wise because at approximately 5:10 p.m. Monday Pierson sent this to the student body:

"Longwood Students: EVENING CLASSES CANCELED for MONDAY, FEB 1 Due to icy road and sidewalk conditions, plus anticipated low temperatures this evening, all classes beginning at 5:30 p.m. today (Monday, February 1, 2010) have been canceled.

DELAYED OPENING TOMORROW, TUESDAY, FEB. 2

Longwood University will open tomorrow at 11:00 a.m."

They even got slightly wiser about when to open adding on another hour for the sun to melt the ice. It didn't really help because Tuesday was not even remotely warm or sunny. I heard several more stories of students falling and hurting themselves-myself being one of them, thankfully I was making my way past a vehicle next to the Longwood Recreation Center and was able to grab that to get my balance back. Long story short, the campus was still unsafe yet expected its students to come.