By Justin Muszynski
After a rare October snow storm that left hundreds of thousands without power, CCSU decided to cancel classes for most of the week as campus was not exempt from the storm’s damage.
There were certainly mixed emotions, but the general consensus seemed to be negative towards this cancellation system that the school decided to impose.
CCSU’s decisions raised some eyebrows as they decided to cancel classes in two 12-hour increments. Morning classes were canceled at 6 pm the night before and afternoon and evening classes were canceled the morning of at 6 am. Classes resumed last week on Thursday at 12 p.m. But how exactly did students feel about their decision?
Alex Johnson, a junior who commutes, says that the school should have taken into consideration that most of CCSU’s population is commuter based and students may have needed more advanced notice, not having normal access to resources at home.
“I didn’t like the whole 6 am and 6 pm cancellation thing,” said Johnson. “It was really a bad idea on their part. People with no power didn’t really have a way to determine if classes would be held and if they found out last minute and had to rush over here that in and of itself could have caused problems.”
Alyssa Reeves however, a senior who also commutes, says that she liked the way CCSU handled canceling classes. Her opinion is exactly the same as President Jack Miller’s was when he made the decision to cancel them in 12 hour increments. She asked the question that if power came back unexpectedly why shouldn’t the university have held classes?
“Some people want to go to class and get educated,” said Reeves. She added, “If there could have been classes and the school still canceled them then that would have upset me. I think the school did a good job using all the resources they could to get in contact with students. I got a bunch of messages at like four in the morning telling me classes were canceled.”
While Reeves has a point in that if the university had power there wouldn’t be anything to stop them from resuming all the normal activities on campus, but some students may have faced extenuating circumstances that were caused by the storm other than just not having power. Michelle LaMonica, who has to commute from Avon, is one of these students, the night the storm hit not only did her house lose power, but a tree fell on her car and smashed her windshield.
“I found it kind of irritating that I had to turn on my phone multiple times a day to see if classes were canceled and waste my battery,” said LaMonica. “The school should have thought more about the struggles their students would have faced if they all of a sudden found out classes were on for the afternoon and evening. I had to miss class on Thursday because a tree smashed my car, if they just canceled the whole day I would have been fine.”
President Miller, who said the idea to cancel classes in two shifts was completely his idea, stood by his decision at a conference during the week without power but may not have thought about residents who wished to return home.
Emily Miller, a freshman who lives on campus, said she would have liked to have been with her family during the tough week that they had, but feared she would have missed class if she left and couldn’t make it back on time.
“It was annoying that they couldn’t have been in better contact with CL&P in order to determine if they could have canceled classes for the whole day knowing they wouldn’t have power,” said Miller. “I could have gone home instead of waiting for the morning to see if I had class.”
