Sarah Shelton – Features Editor
Puddles. Everywhere.
When it rains puddles form, obviously, but thank God for my rainboots because the walk back to my dorm during the rain, and many hours after rain, is insane.
When wearing any normal pair of sneakers walking from the academic quad to the ResLife quad when there are puddles, there is no way to escape it unless you walk directly on the road, which seems to have no puddles.
I do not know if it was how the sidewalks were put down or just the shape of the land, but the water pools up on these sidewalks leaving you to have soaking wet feet while sitting in class and needing to immediately change your socks when back in the dorms.
There is a lack of draining with these puddles. They stay there for days at a time and the worms are basically taking a swim as it may be an ocean for them.
I actually did not own rainboots until my sophomore year of college. I got them due to the puddles here. I got sick of my sneakers being smelly, wet and covered in dirt because of the unavoidable puddles throughout campus.
If students attempt to avoid these puddles, they end up having to walk through mud.
I honestly have never seen anything like it. Where I live, puddles form on the sidewalks and roads, but they are never this large or this deep, or even this many.
Puddles somewhat like this used to form on the road I live on, and the town ripped up our curbs to fix it. They were not super successful, as a giant puddle always forms in front of my driveway, but many do not form on the street anymore.
My friend said a year ago, while walking outside the Dunkin doors of the Adanti Student Center during a storm, she was drenched up to her knees and had to walk back to North Midrise cold and soaked with water.
These puddles seem to mainly form by the residence halls with giant puddles next to Farnham Hall, between the blue tarp walls where students have to walk between the construction and Farnham Hall, on the side of Chase Hall, and in front of the back door of West Campus.
I honestly do not think this problem is easily fixable, but my advice to incoming students is to make sure to bring some rain boots on move-in day to be well prepared for the coming years of rainstorms.
