The Bowdoin Orient

March 9, 2001
Volume CXXXII, Number 19

Essential advice for snow days

   A collective sigh of relief escaped the mouths of Bowdoin students on Tuesday when we were informed that classes would not be canceled. Whew! A resounding victory for the forces of knowledge!
   Well, not exactly. Many of us grumbled irritably as we trudged our way through knee-deep snow and whipping wind. But at least, if we were walking, we were only risking extreme sogginess. For those living off-campus, the snow posed a more serious threat.
   Although Bowdoin recognized this threat, the College did not take the most effective measures to alleviate it for either staff or students. Kent Chabotar's email indicated that "non-essential" staff would not have to report to work. This terminology, with its needlessly negative connotations, belies a fundamental flaw in Bowdoin's standard response to severe winter weather. The focus should not be upon whether one particular campus position is "essential," and another is not, but rather upon individuals. That is, the College's policy should simply be that those who can make it to campus in inclement weather, should. For those who cannot, whether they are "essential" or not is irrelevant.
   Organization on this principle encourages misconceptions among students. Along with other departments, the Office of Student Records was closed for the snow day. Given the current administrative vocabulary, one might assume, then, that the office is somehow unimportant. Anyone who has dealt with Student Records knows how fallacious an assumption that would be!
   Labeling certain services "essential" also feeds Bowdoin students' sometimes unhealthy sense of entitlement. While the College probably should provide some food for students, asking the entire dining staff to show up during severe weather-weather severe enough that the College considers it too risky for all employees to attend work-underestimates Bowdoin students. Are we so pampered that our need for two varieties of soup and a full deli bar should overshadow the dangers that dining staff face driving to work in the blustery conditions of last Tuesday? Surely we could make do with some milk, juice, and PB&J for a day.
   Another implicit assumption in Bowdoin's current snow day scenario is that all students live on campus. Perhaps this would be the case if the College provided more, quality on-campus housing options. But as it stands, where perpetual over-admittance makes students fortunate to find accommodation in Stowe Inn and other hovels, many students are left annually to scramble for off-campus housing. For these students it is surely a slap in the face to be denied good housing, and then be asked to make perilous car journeys to class. Sure, students could opt to stay home, but should our policies really expect students to sacrifice personal safety for academics?
   Bowdoin's severe weather policies do make us look hard-core; no mere blizzard, raging for a paltry two days, is going to still Bowdoin students' thirst for intellectual enlightenment. Yet, at what cost do we maintain these policies? Other colleges in very similar situations, including Bates, canceled classes and operated on very skeletal staffs during the recent storm. And while a few students may have lamented the class time lost and the slimmed dining options, it seems a safe bet that the great majority of Bates' staff and students will not look back with much bitterness upon the day it shut down. On most issues we might be loath to admit the wisdom of our more primitive peer institution, but on this one it is safe to say the Bobcats have blazed the best trail.