By DENNIS BEARDSLEY
STAFF WRITER
Students reacted to the harsh winter on the Rutgers New Brunswick campus with equal amounts of relief and stress.
Students took advantage of the extra break when they had a day off after the Feb. 9 storm to catch up on work but also have fun.
Students such as Junior Tadakuni Nakamura who were overloaded with homework used the time to get caught up in classes.
“The snow was a lucky break for me,” Nakamura said. “I had a test on Thursday and did not have much time to study during the week. The snow let me catch up with my school work and because of that I aced the test.”
Being snowed in, hanging out among friends and with no school, many students looked for something fun to do such as snowball fights and playing in the snow.
Sophomore Peter Kolev, a resident of the New Gibbons buildings on the Cook/Douglass campus, took advantage of such conditions did during a walk in the middle of Tuesday night.
“I was outside with a friend when we saw some people having a snowball fight,” Peter said. “I was bored so I thought I’d join in. One thing led to another and soon enough I had the entire complex in one giant snowball fight.”
Kolev said the New Gibbons dorm residents are relatively reclusive. Most students associate with students of their respective buildings, but the snow was able to bring together almost the entire New Gibbons dorm.
“There was at least 60 people involved in this snowball fight and it was my building (referring to New Gibbons B-5) versus the rest of New Gibbons. But, there was no real competitive spirit involved; it was just a bunch of strangers trying to have some fun given the circumstances,” Kolev added.
The snowball fight lasted for almost two hours, finally ending around 2 a.m. The fight was ended when the police were called to the scene after students began to throw snowballs at passing cars.
The blizzard did was not a relief for all of those affected by it. With classes canceled, the buses were also inactive some days.
This led to students being stuck where they were, not being able to get anywhere without walking. Sophomore Spencer Morrison said he was forced to walk from the College Avenue campus to the Cook/Douglass campus using Route 18.
“I had to be on College Avenue, but I didn’t realize I was going to be stranded there,” Morrison said. “When it came time to leave, none of the sidewalks were cleared and everywhere looked like the arctic. Without any cars on the road, I thought it would be cool to walk Route 18 back to Cook/Douglass.”
When asked why he did not contact any of his friends for a ride, Morrison replied, “The storm was so bad, I didn’t want to put anybody in that position. The safest way to get home surprisingly was walking.”
Even when the storm was finished travel was not made any easier anytime soon. The aftermath of that storm could be felt around the campus for the next few weeks.
Whole parking lots were blocked off because of the sheer amount of snow, causing dorm residents and commuters to suffer alike.
“Everybody’s cars were stuck – it took me almost an hour to dig mine out. With the stuck cars the parking lots could not be plowed,” Nakamura said of the New Gibbons lot.
“The decision to make people move their cars was too late, so if you were a commuter you would have to try your luck at another lot.' |
