At about 9:30 a.m. Friday morning it started to snow. Thirty-five mph swirling winds accompanied the snow and despite the local forecast, no one expected the snow to continue for the next 36 hours.
Around 11 a.m., I drove with a friend to the communication building and we were already sliding. My classes got to be less and less full and students struggled to get to campus.
Junior public relations major Izabela Jundzill said that she pulled out of her driveway and immediately went up the curb. After she got that straightened out, it took her almost an hour to get to Otterbein.
The snow was coming down hard and covering the ground quickly. By noon it was clear the roads were dangerous and everyone was waiting for the president to cancel afternoon classes, but the message never came.
It wasn't until about 1:30 p.m. that President C. Brent DeVore decided to close the campus starting at 3 p.m., meaning that students should still attempt to make it to their 2 p.m. classes.
"I was lucky that I had friends I could stay with on campus because I didn't feel comfortable driving back to my apartment in Dublin by the time classes were finally closed at 3 p.m.," said senior psychology major Trudy Baxter.
Although the storm came extremely fast, I feel that everyone should have been more prepared. Even the city schools were caught in a bind when there appeared to be no bad weather as of 7 a.m. or 8 a.m.; however, I feel that many lives were put at risk when they were asked to drive in the blizzard Friday afternoon. Otterbein is lucky there weren't any serious accidents.
Sophomore equine major Catherine Mueller said, "A friend wanted me to pick her up from the communication building so she didn't have to walk, but I had to say no. I was really afraid to drive."
Weekend classes were cancelled as they should have been, but Monday left students in only a slightly better predicament. Otterbein did a great job clearing the major pathways, but it was still slippery. The roads were better than Friday, but still not completely safe.
Countless times, Westerville City Schools, along with most of the central Ohio districts, have closed, leaving Otterbein to fend for itself.
While most of the students live on campus, there are quite a few who don't. Then there are all the professors, faculty and staff that commute each day. It's week 10, so many students don't even have the option of avoiding the risk and declaring their own snow day.
We're in college and we should expect to always go to classes; we won't get snow days in the "real world." I get that, but I don't think Westerville schools are closing for no reason.
Westerville City Schools were closed because the superintendent thought that sending kids to school would be putting them at risk, but because we're in college and older, we should take that risk. Something doesn't add up.
"Being stuck at school this weekend only went so far with the library closed," said Mueller, "I didn't expect it to be open, but it was just hard approaching week 10."
I traveled home to Lewis Center on Friday afternoon not knowing that I wouldn't get back until Sunday morning on account of a level 3 emergency in my county. That definitely threw a wrench in the studying plan. t&c;
BREANNA WATZKA IS A SOPHOMORE PUBLIC RELATIONS MAJOR AND STAFF WRITER FOR THE t&c.;
