By Justin Muszynski
After record snow totals from the winter storm hit Connecticut on Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people were left with no power, but just how much better off were students that chose to stay here on campus at CCSU?
For some, students were afraid to go home and not be able to get back in time for classes, should they still be held.
Andrew Greene, who lives in Vance Hall, says that his home was too far away to go to and be back for potential classes that could still be taking place.
“I live in New Haven,” said Greene. “If I left I might not be able to make it back for class on time if it was first thing in the morning. Plus we have power in the dorms so there’s no need to leave.”
While many may have not had the option to go home simply because of the pure distance that their home is in relation to CCSU, most agree that the amount of time they didn’t have power wasn’t enough to affect them severely enough to want to return to their hometown.
Kaz Tsujimoto, says that he lost power in Clarence Carroll Hall on Saturday night but got it back in the morning before it got too cold in his dorm. He also said the RAs informed him that the school was using all the generators that normally power the academic buildings to help out all the dormitories on campus.
“We lost power at like 3 a.m. but it didn’t get all that cold in my room, it was tolerable,” said Tsulimoto. “Then in the morning the RAs told us they would use the other building’s generators to power the dorms. I’m only assuming they needed to do that because the gas stations around here were closed but let’s hope at this point they could get more for the generators if they need it.”
Nicholas Healy however, wasn’t too concerned about the heat or missing classes as much as he was about getting into his building. Healey, who resides at Catherine Beecher Hall, said that after leaving the dorms some people had problems getting back in because the door wouldn’t open due to the card swiper not working.
“People that left couldn’t get back in because the card thing wasn’t working,” said Healy. “You needed to call one of your friends or something, otherwise you were screwed. Eventually someone taped the latch on the door so it wouldn’t lock; I think maybe the RA did it but I’m really not sure.”
Some found the lack of electricity as somewhat of an issue as Healy did, others said it was much more of an inconvenience than anything else. Brelynn Brown, of Clarence Carroll Hall, said the only thing she noticed that was different on campus was the surrounding restaurants were all closed.
“I’m not even really sure if the heat went out because I was warm in my bed,” said Brown. “And as far as not being able to get back into the building, the RA just told us to let them know if we were going out so they could let us back in, it wasn’t a problem. The only thing that was a problem was ordering food because we didn’t want to eat on campus and all the businesses around here were closed.”
Kevin Kutys, who lives in Vance, agrees that there weren’t any major issues on campus and the only thing that was slightly troublesome was not being able to see in the shower.
“It really wasn’t a big deal here,” said Kutys. “I couldn’t see in the shower but it’s not as bad as other people have it right now. I wouldn’t blame the school for anything, they did everything they could and we [students] were fine the entire weekend and still are.”