During the past few weeks Mirror Lake turned into an ice rink for some campus visitors.

With the recent warming trend, the ice on Mirror Lake is gone, but concerns about people getting in and on Mirror Lake have not disappeared.

Signs are going up soon that will let people know they should not be in or on the lake, said Bob Armstrong, director of emergency management and fire prevention at Ohio State.

Students or anyone else found on the ice have been asked to leave in the past.

Campus police were routinely called during the cold spell to escort people off the ice, said Capt. Eric Whiteside, who oversees the patrol bureau for University police.

“It’s been a long-standing policy of the police division to ask people to get off the ice,” Whiteside said. “Across the board we don’t think it’s a safe thing to do,”

The depth of the lake varies depending on location — there are both shallow and deep parts. “There is a real safety risk even in shallow water,” he said.

Brian Butt, 22, came to campus and practiced his hockey skills during the freeze. “Some guys told me it was three feet deep,” he said. Butt is not a student at Ohio State — he is from Canada, and is in in Columbus to visit a friend.

Butt said he has been playing hockey for years outside, and felt like he knew when it was safe to go on the ice.

“If you’re that worried, you can get an ice auger, and drill to find the thickness of the ice,” Butt said.

University officials do not plan to drill.

“There’s no way to know how thick the ice is unless you drill a hole in it, and that’s not something we’re prepared or able to do,” Armstrong said,

There are a lot of safeguards that would need to be taken prior to allowing activities on the ice, Armstrong said. Icy bodies of water and people do not mix, he said.

“Any time that you mix humans falling into ice water you end up with problems,” said Gabby Reissland, director of insurance and risk management. “Mirror Lake was not designed to support ice skating in any way, shape or form”

To date no one has fallen through the ice, Whiteside said.
“None that I’m aware of, and I’d like to keep it that way,” he said.