We've received mass e-mails about the Daily News' portrayal of Doug McConkey's job loss and also about the Police Yourself campaign. Sure, those issues are important to some. But I'm really wondering why students didn't receive one of those mass e-mails as a heads-up to last week's treacherous weather.
At its peak, the storm kept 115,000 of the 122,000 Indiana & Michigan Power Co. customers in Delaware County powerless, according to the Muncie Star Press. Luckily, most students were still home for break, but for some, "home" is a hefty drive away. So why did Ball State neglect to let these more than 2,100 students know what they'd be driving back to face: homes without electricity, homes without heat, downed power lines, the threat of flooding and falling debris. Of course, we could have consulted Ball State's Web site, but the ice storm was so concentrated in its destruction that no one outside of Delaware County even knew about it. We've got a lot of out-of-staters here.
"The crisis team was mostly focused about trying to get power back on campus," Randy Hyman, dean of students and coordinator of the campus crisis management team, said. Ice storms are just one of the situations the crew is trained to tackle. According to Hyman, the team discussed sending out a mass e-mail, but concluded the message would've been confusing to students -- on one hand, classes would still be in session; on the other hand, Muncie was in a state of emergency.
It's understandable that the message couldn't be sent immediately -- Ball State was also without power until Saturday. Does that mean it was impossible to access the master list of student e-mail addresses? It would've been courteous for officials to advise students as to what had happened. At least if they were informed, students could have brought an extra blanket to keep warm or even delayed their return to Muncie.
In the aftermath, Ball State has opened its arms to students in need by providing temporary housing. Many Ball State officials have worked extra hours to answer telephones and field student inquiries. That's a wonderful show of generosity. It's nice that the management team wanted to protect students from the effects of the storm, but, again, if students had been informed, they could have made the decision themselves whether to return or not. Although the crisis management team dictated that students shouldn't be sent conflicting messages, it's a shame students were left in the dark.
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