Cornell Did Nothing Wrong

To the Editor,

I write this letter to express my admiration for the manner in which Cornell University handled the recent Valentine’s Day snow storm.

I know that many have bemoaned the fact that campus was not closed until 12:30 pm. They wonder how the university could have failed to realize that the storm would be problematic for professors and staff members who commute to Ithaca from as far away as Cortland and Binghamton. They say that classes should have been canceled in the morning, so that no one would have had to travel on unplowed, icy, windy roads to get to campus, only to be forced to turn around again and head home in the same treacherous conditions.

I, on the other hand, commend Cornell’s decision to stay open for the morning. How were the administrators in charge of the decision supposed to know that the storm would be so troublesome? I could understand criticizing them if they had prior experience in dealing with unfavorable weather conditions, but we all know that this is not the case at Cornell. Winter comes and goes so quickly in Ithaca that there are years when it doesn’t snow at all! (By the way, I don’t know why everyone from the South complains about having to buy new clothes when they get to Cornell, because I know that I’ve hardly found a use for my heavy-duty winter jacket in the four years that I’ve been here.) Because they have had such minimal experience dealing with snow, then, there is no way that Cornell administrators could have known that the storm was going to continue throughout the day when they woke up and saw that a foot of snow had already fallen and that the weather forecasters were predicting snow for at least another 24 hours. Honestly, who really believes that the Weather Channel knows what it’s talking about, anyway? It’s not like they have any experience or track record of accurately forecasting weather conditions.

In closing, I would like to re-state my adamant support of Cornell’s decision not to close until the middle of the day, when it would be most convenient for students who had trudged through snowdrifts to get to class to leave campus and for professors and staff to drive home on unplowed and unsalted roads. Cornell has never before been faced with snow, and the people in charge of making decisions did the best that they could. I do not feel right about judging them too harshly. After all, there may come a time when I will be faced with a difficult choice for which I will have no prior experiences to rely on and no one providing me with predictive information that could be helpful in my decision-making process. I only hope that I will be able to handle such an ordeal with the same level of organization and professionalism that Cornell exhibited this past Wednesday.

Sincerely,
Cornell’s Biggest Fan