Letter to the editor:
As I browse the postings of my fellow students on Facebook and Twitter I can’t help but ask myself a seemingly simple question. Are we college students or first graders? Last I checked college students are a group made up of mostly young adults seeking to better prepare themselves for the future. First graders are young children lacking much personal sensibility who rely on others for their survival and are keen to whine about nearly anything.
In the past month our wonderful university here in Columbus has experienced a phenomenon common to the area known as winter. Winter is a time of cold and snow which, as student body made up mostly of Ohioans, we should be rather familiar with. However as I scroll through the vast expanse of social media and make my morning trip to class it appears as though some of us were dropped onto a foreign planet totally unprepared. Minimalist running shoes and a light cotton hoodie, three-fourths length leggings along with fuzzy moccasin footwear, or a fancy brand name fleece meant for a cool autumn day without so much as a hat as an accessory. I smirk and continue along my way in my boots, pants, and sensible winter coat. I was at work plowing this same snow until 2:30 a.m. Wednesday. I grew up in the Northeast Ohio snow belt where driving through 10 inches of new snow on my dead end street to get to school was a common occurrence. I along with many others have come prepared.
Some students seem content to blame the conditions on the university and complain that classes are even in session at all. Many will choose to spend a day flipping through their Netflix queue rather than braving the “treacherous” walk to the classes they pay thousands of dollars to attend. Understanding our stature as empowered young adults striving for independence our university officials have bid us the challenge of surviving days like this snowy first Wednesday of February. However they have not let us attempt it alone. Thousands of dollars and countless man hours poured onto these streets and sidewalks Tuesday night. Except for some plow tailings and random low traffic areas with lingering snow most sidewalks are clear and barely even wet.
I find it worrisome that we are attempting to get an edge on the world through education yet some of us can’t even master a basic winter commute. Perhaps this should make me feel better about my own position in the world.
Prepared for life.
When Mother Nature makes it difficult for us to safely traverse campus with bitter cold conditions, as has happened three times this semester, the officials of our university will ensure our safety and cancel classes. A bit of light snow is not one of those times. Welcome to Ohio, it snows here; buy some proper winter attire, allow a bit of extra time to get to class, and tough it out with the rest of us. Are you a college student or a first grader?
Mitch Andrews
4th year in welding engineering
[email protected]
