Today: Mar 29, 2024

Snow days an inconvenience to Southern students

J’Mari HughesReporter

In elementary school, I, like many others would wake up in the winter and read the bottom of the WTNH screen hoping to see the name of my school on the cancellation list.

I remember one day when I was in high school, my sisters and I woke up at 6 a.m., got dressed, and walked to our bus stop in preparation to go to school, only then to have my other sister scream from the house, “School is cancelled!”

But that was not the last time that has happened, even in college. Though I cannot remember exactly when it may have happened, I would think that at one time or another Southern released a “campus closed” email after several students got up and ready for class.

I went through my SouthernAlert emails to see around what time the university typically emails students and staff to let them know school is closing. A majority of these messages were sent out the night before, giving Southerners enough notice that they can turn off their alarm clocks or stay up all night bingewatching Netflix without having to worry about oversleeping.

A few of these emails were sent in the morning, the earliest, from my record, being 5:45 a.m. The earliest classes at Southern start at about 8 a.m. so in that case, 5:45 a.m. seems like a decent time. However, any later than that could result in cranky students waking up so early for no reason.

But truthfully, if Southern does send out cancellation emails at a problematic time, I do not think they can be at fault. First, the amount of snow may be unexpected and the school might not have been prepared to call the day off. Second, I doubt Southern has intentions of inconveniencing their students and are just doing their best to prevent us from traveling in bad weather. Third, regardless of the inconvenience, just be glad they called school off.

Waking up early enough to make it to class just to find out it has been cancelled may not be ideal, but if you ask me, getting the entire day to yourself is worth the simple task of changing back into pajamas.

Snow days may effect a class’ syllabus by throwing off when assignments are due. Just one may not do much but several could majorly alter a homework schedule, or even add days to the end of the school year. Being in New England, the snow, the cold weather, the school cancellations might not be ideal but they sure are expected.

When we had a snow day on Feb. 12, Southern sent the message out around 11 p.m. the previous night, so it was either a good message to fall asleep to or one to wake up to.

When I woke up, there was absolutely zero snow on the ground so if I had not checked my email, I probably would have gotten dressed and ready to go to school. I have  concluded that Southern typically gives school-goers enough notice as to whether or not school will be cancelled.

Photo Credit: J’Mari Hughes

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