A Plowing Disappointment

By Tia Porter

Following the recent snowstorm, plows raced to keep the roads clear; unfortunately, for many students, this meant having their cars boxed in by walls of snow. Dozens of rows were filled with cars that had become unreachable without a shovel. Between the dangerously low temperatures and the sudden heaps of snow, this was especially troublesome for anyone hoping to take their car off campus.  

“This is very annoying,” said Eli Bodie, a freshman majoring in creative writing. “I’m trying to get home for the weekend, and I don’t know how I'm gonna do all that.” 

Bodie rushed to find a shovel to get their car free, and they weren’t the only one. In parking lots all over campus, students were scrambling to dig out their vehicles. While an email had been sent out encouraging students to use the West 1 parking lot, commuters who drove to campus in the days after the storm struggled to get around. 

Bodie shoveling their car free. (Photo by Tia Porter)

“None of the walkways are shoveled,” said a senior majoring in psychology, “so you have to navigate through cars, and there was a lot of ice and snow between the cars with minimal salt down, if any. Driving through the lot is doable, but not exactly safe. There's so much snow piled up at the entrance of each lane for parking that it is barely wide enough to drive through, and honestly, if you're driving with two-wheel drive, it's unsafe and poses a slipping hazard.” 

As a commuter, this student who wishes to remain anonymous shared her frustration with how poorly the school handled snow removal. For most of the week, the temperature fluctuated between the high teens and low twenties, so spending time in the cold, freeing her car, was far from ideal. 

Snow piled up high in the West 1 parking lot. (Photo by Madonna Pedone)

“I brought the issue up to my friends, and one stated that her lot was undrivable,” she said, “and that she had to dig out double the snow from her car because the plows moved the snow into parking spaces, and up against the cars, basically making a wall of snow.” 

Many students spent the first few days after the storm trying to check on their cars, while others chose to wait for the snow to melt naturally. Either way, students have been raising concerns with Purchase over how the messy snow removal has impacted their return to the semester. While it is important for roads to be cleared, it is also important for those roads to be safe, and for students to be able to move about campus freely. 

Cars in the Central 4 parking lot. (Photo by Eryn Cervino)

“They literally have plowed all of this snow in front of my car, and it came up to my hip,” said Eryn Cervino, a senior majoring in cinema studies. “It was a couple feet tall, and there weren’t any shovels. I ended up calling, like, four different people, and they finally found me a shovel in The Olde. But in the process, because it was so icy, I ended up twisting my ankle and breaking my snow shovel.” 

Facilities did not respond to a request for comment in a timely manner.

Bodie's car trapped in the snow. (Photo by Eli Bodie)