The Weird and The Wacky Meet

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Snow Daze:  HCC Plows Through Lives of Students

                 White, cold, slick and dangerous is the only way to describe Bridgeport roads after a snowstorm.  I can remember the last one.  It’s Wednesday morning, and every student in the Housatonic community wakes to a blanket of bitter arctic snow.   The scrolling bar at the bottom of the channel 8 newscast inches towards the H’s.  Housatonic Community College isn’t on the list of schools with canceled classes.

                 Snow is not just an inconvenience.  Even a minor snowstorm increases traffic accidents; a major storm means fatalities.  After one early January snowstorm this year, Connecticut State Police reported 115 accidents in one morning, according to USA Today.  This was after just a measly two to four inches of snow.  During the blizzard that happened later in the month, where Connecticut was covered in one to two feet of snow, at least thirteen people died in the Northeast, as reported by CNN.com.  Three of those deaths were Connecticut residents.

                 Imagine what the death toll would have been if the blizzard had hit during a weekday, when many would not have had the option of just staying home and riding out the storm.  There are no two ways about it: when schools and non-essential businesses remain open on snow days, they put the lives of their students and employees at risk.  Driving in the snow is dangerous, and on such days, HCC should be closed if the roads aren’t safe to ensure the lives of others. 

                 “The winter season does impose special conditions on motorists, their driving habits and vehicles. Safe winter driving requires a balance of common sense and preparation,” is the stern warning on the Connecticut Department of Transportation website.

                 Ultimately, whether or not to drive in potentially unsafe conditions is up to the student, but it is not much of a choice if the alternative to risking your life is to be penalized academically.  After all, so long as the school is officially open, some teachers will make it in, expect you to do the same, and hold it against you if you don’t.  If you have to miss a class, some teachers are sympathetic, but others aren’t.  Fundamentally, they are under no obligation to make allowances for the weather so long as the school remains open.

                 As an honor student who takes pride in my academic achievement, I feel uncomfortable choosing to miss a class.  If the school is going to be open, I am going to be here no matter what.  My grades aren’t worth the gamble that comes with an indifferent professor, so instead I am forced to gamble my safety.

                 So why doesn’t HCC have more inclement weather days?  In two separate Horizons articles last year, Academic Dean Anita Gliniecki laid out the process behind calling a snow day. 

                 “What we're looking at is:  Can people safely get to the campus and get in and out of the buildings?” said Gliniecki.  In another interview she added, “During times of snowy and icy weather, each person has to make a self determination if it is safe to travel. Our students come from such a wide area that at the same time there are 100% dry roads in one area and unsafe icy roads in another.”

                 Yet, Gliniecki is reluctant to cancel classes for a variety of reasons; including the idea that class time is precious.  Then again, so are students’ lives.  And those students will come into school if a snow day is not declared.  Professors might cancel individual classes, but students can’t take that risk.

                 Right now, the school is either open or it’s closed.  The Connecticut Department of Transportation suggests that employees ask for flex time during inclement weather.  I suggest something similar for HCC.  On days when the weather makes it dangerous or impossible for some to come to school but is not uniformly bad enough to force a closing, a snow advisory day should be declared.  Teachers and students would be encouraged to attend if they can safely do so, but would have official sanction to stay home if they feel they must. If a student misses a test on such a day, the teacher would be required to allow a make-up, just as if it were a full snow day.  Likewise, if an assignment is due, students get an extension.  This would let people act as their consciences demand without threat of punishment or academic failure.

Copyright 2005

HCC Opens After A Snow Storm

By Amanda Evans

Date: 02/24/05