Snow brings pros and cons to VCU

Sunday evening, VCU students enjoyed something extremely rare in Richmond: lots of snow. While all the snow gave students an excuse to abandon homework and play in the winter wonderland, more importantly it cancelled school-an even more rare occurrence than heavy snowfall. ?

The city of Richmond was in charge of clearing the roads and VCU cleared the sidewalks on campus. VCU and Richmond had all of Monday to clear the sidewalks in order to have a normal schedule of classes Tuesday, but there were still eight inches of snow on the ground, settled over a layer of ice, which made the thought of VCU having classes Tuesday absurd. However, school was not cancelled Tuesday and VCU resumed a normal schedule.

The amount of snow made it harder for VCU to get everything cleared from the roads and sidewalks. VCU obviously did the best they could, but one day was not enough to get all of the snow cleared.

If VCU did not have enough time to clear the snow, school should have been either canceled or delayed to get the snow and ice properly cleared. It would be better to delay school for one more day than to put students and faculty in unsafe situations.

In an e-mail statement from John M. Bennett VCU Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration said VCU reviewed to road conditions all over Richmond and only after reviewing the conditions of the road did VCU decide it was safe to observe a normal class schedule Tuesday.

Having classes was not a bad thing – the sun melted much of the snow – but the piles of ice and snow melted into deep puddles of slush. VCU did not have enough time to clear the roads, and conditions for walking around campus and parking were still unfavorable.

On the Floyd Street entrance of the University Student Commons, a puddle of icy slush made it almost impossible to get around in the mid-afternoon-the most crowded part of the day. There was very little salt all around campus, and there was only a narrow pathway to walk on in the Commons Plaza, one of the most crowded parts of campus.

Also, the reduced service activity of the Security Escort Service Tuesday and Wednesday nights because of “inclement weather” suggested VCU was not prepared for a normal class schedule. According to the VCU Alert Web site, VCU Security Escort Service operated on a limited basis because of icy road conditions.

While the roads were much better Wednesday, if VCU Security Escort Service and VCU Police did not think the roads were safe to drive on, why did VCU think students would be safe driving on the roads early Tuesday morning or at night after classes?

Bennett also stated in his e-mail that the limited Security Escort Service was based on accumulated snow in the parking lanes of the streets, and limited travel lanes for buses on some side streets. State law makes it illegal to discharge passengers into travel lanes, so the stops were limited to those where it was safe to discharge passengers.

While this made sense, it still inconvenienced students in cold and icy conditions. If the roads were not safe for all of the Escort Service to run, the roads were not safe for students.

Granted, the VCU Alert Web site asked teachers to be flexible about attendance Tuesday, this is midterms week-when attendance is anything but flexible. ?If students were expected to be on campus, VCU should have made sure all of the Escort Service was running so students could get home safely, instead of possibly having to navigate icy roads on foot. Or, the university should have canceled evening classes, so no one would be in any dilemma.

For now, the snow is melting and the temperature is supposed to soar into the 70s this weekend so it looks like all the snow will hopefully melt away. However, now we all should be more prepared to handle snow in Richmond.