OpinionSnow day, or go day?

Snow day, or go day?

This article was published on February 27, 2019 and may be out of date. To maintain our historical record, The Cascade does not update or remove outdated articles.
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We have been having some remarkable weather lately. Until this month, we have had a rather mild winter. Yet what perplexes me is UFV’s seemingly arbitrary decisions on when campus should close, and when it should remain open, apparently with no regard to conditions outside.

On Monday, Feb. 4, there was a light dusting of snow on the ground. Going by snowfall alone, it made sense to keep campus open, but the wind was absolutely hellish. Imagine being blasted in the face with a power washer filled with liquid nitrogen. Walking to the bus stop was so painful I almost had to turn back and stay home. Luckily, the stop I went to had a shelter that blocked the wind (many Chilliwack bus stops do not). In addition, I discovered just as the bus arrived that I had forgotten my notebook and textbook. On any other day I could and would have gone back for them and caught the next bus, but walking back home and then back to the bus stop in that awful wind would have been unbearable, so I did without. The temperature was well below freezing with a frostbite warning (something we in the Lower Mainland rarely have to worry about), and with worse predicted for later on. Campus should not have remained open under those conditions, but they did anyway.

The Friday, Feb. 7, campus was open but a bad storm was predicted for that evening. I was seriously worried that day about whether I would be able to get home from class, and what I would do if I were stranded in Abbotsford. I made it home, but the storm rolled in soon after. It was so bad it resulted in power outages and stripped the shingles from some of my neighbours’ roofs. I was glad I didn’t have to be outdoors in that.

The next Monday it was snowing, and the wind, while harsh, was not as bad as last week’s. It was only when I was confronted by a locked and empty campus that I found out that classes had been cancelled. Since I had to get up early, I didn’t have time to check the UFV website, but even so, I didn’t suspect that campus would close. Apparently it was worse in Abbotsford, but I only got as far as Chilliwack campus, so at the time, the closure seemed like an overreaction. Which is not to say I wasn’t grateful for a snow day, and in fairness, worse weather was expected later, but still.

I understand that making judgement calls like this is difficult. One has to extrapolate based on current conditions, and there is no certainty that they will get worse, get better, or stay the same as the day goes on. The university also has to make judgements about how much people can handle when commuting.

If every day with snow was a snow day, education, business, errands, and chores would fall too far behind during winter in places where it snows. There is a certain point where you just have to suck it up and soldier through. Yet I am baffled and concerned as to why heavy snowfall is worthy of shutting down for the day, but freezing gale-force winds are not. Those winds were cold enough to carry a risk of frostbite, and caused severe physical pain to those exposed to it. And before you say that I’m simply unaccustomed to extremely cold weather, keep in mind that the polar vortex that swept across North America was devastating even to regions where cold, snowy winters are the norm.

I think the very concept of snow days is the problem here. It elevates one kind of bad weather as an acceptable excuse for closing schools and businesses while ignoring others. Perhaps in places like B.C. and California we should start having smoke days, although I would hope that region-encompassing wildfires do not become so frequent and regular that we need those. Air filled with smoke and ash can be a serious health hazard.

I hope that in future, UFV’s administration will take more than snow into consideration when deciding whether to cancel classes or not.

Image: Jeff Mijo-Burch/The Cascade

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