Last week, a white blanket covered much of Ball State University and the surrounding city of Muncie.
The weather forecasters predicted the winter storm, and they actually got this one right. Maybe not the exact hour it would hit, but they were pretty close on the amount of fluff that would envelop Ball State.
I woke up on Monday morning for my 8 a.m. Spanish class hoping that there was snow on the ground, classes would be canceled and I could go back to bed. But no, not a speck, and off to class I went.
At 9 a.m. I emerged from North Quad and lo and behold there was snow falling!
So, like many other students, I thought, "Maybe my afternoon classes would be canceled."
Not a chance.
Tuesday was a very different story. After waking up and looking outside at the inches of snow on the ground, I was baffled. Once I walked outside and attended my Tuesday classes, I was no longer baffled; I was angry.
The sidewalks were covered, the roads weren't the best and we were having class. I don't know if the snow removal crews thought that going through once and getting whatever they could the first time meant that the snow was clear, but it definitely wasn't. Thank goodness I live on campus because I don't think I would have driven to school if I didn't.
I only live about an hour north of Ball State, but they know how to clear the roads. They send out snowplows, and I mean real, honest-to-goodness snowplows to remove the snow. I also live in the country and you can imagine they don't get as much attention as the main roads. But believe it or not, the back roads of my hometown receive more attention during the winter than McKinley Avenue did during the winter storm last week.
I'm not complaining about the fact that we still had class despite the bad weather; I was well aware we would because it would take an extraordinary amount of snow for classes to be canceled. I'm complaining about the lack of snow removal on Ball State's part. The sidewalks and roads were not clear when they should have been, making it dangerous for students to travel and walk to class.
Kevin Kenyon, associate vice president of Facilities Planning and Management, disagrees with me on the snow removal issue.
"We were very prepared and we knew it was coming. We had a good turn out of workers who worked overtime," he said.
Now I won't rag on the city of Muncie for not clearing the roads and sidewalks of Ball State because the university removes its own snow. According to Kenyon, "the landscaping services help with the snow and the custodial services help out with around buildings and entryways and exits."
In front of my dorm, snow was piled in front of the door, making it difficult to get into the building. I understand wind is a factor, but that snow should have been removed sooner.
Although Kenyon and I disagree on how well the snow removal was done, we do agree on one thing: "Winter is inconvenient for everyone, so expect delays and inconveniences," Kenyon said.
Because I am a freshman, I don't know if Ball State normally does a better job at removing snow and didn't this time because it was quite a bit, or if the campus normally does a mediocre job. But if only some small trucks with front-end shovels are going to be clearing McKinley and little man-powered snow removal machines are removing snow from the sidewalks, then we are going to have some problems. I say bring in a real snowplow to drive down McKinley; I think it would be much better at snow removal than a little pickup truck.
Next time we have a lot of snow, which I'm hoping won't be until next February, Ball State's snow removal team needs to do a better job — it could start with actually getting snow off the roads. Then maybe move to something more advanced like sidewalks.
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