Thursday’s snowstorm stifled travel along the coast, forcing a campus shut down and leaving a foot of snow in its wake.
This past Thursday, Feb. 9, Manhattan College had its first snow day since the 2015 school year. Classes were cancelled early Thursday morning, notifying students through their school emails and the MC Alert System ‘Jasper 911’.
Students received the alert texts and emails at 5:10 a.m. as the snow began accumulating an hour earlier. Many students had class cancellations made Wednesday evening before the snow even began.
While MC did not get a cancellation until the early morning, other schools around New York City cancelled classes Wednesday evening including local Bronx college Fordham University. This was a rarity for New York schools, as Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted out cancellations the night before rather than the typical morning-of school cancellation announcements.
Some students took to social media the same evening to question why the college had not called off school yet, asking for the consideration of commuter students who would have to make the trek to campus in the bad weather.
Meterologists had been calling for almost a foot of snow since the week prior but Wednesday’s weather was almost sixty degrees and felt like spring.
“I was skeptical that no snow had fallen yet and it was warm that day [Wednesday], I wasn’t expecting it,” said junior Amanda Jones, who spent the snow day hanging out with friends and exploring in the snow.
Once the snow did start coming down, Physical Plant began shoveling and plowing the campus to begin clearing it for classes on Friday.
As for resident students, many did make the journey to grab food at Locke’s Loft, which remained open during the storm. Others stayed in their dorm buildings all day, where resident assistants planned spur-of-the-moment events for the day like movies in the lounge of Horan Hall or cutting paper snowflakes as a distraction from homework.
It was a relaxing day for students, especially those who were not expecting the snow. Those who did expect the snow spent the day hanging with friends and getting some rest in the middle of the school week.
“I expected the snow day to happen because my friends and I put spoons under our pillows for fun. Plus, everywhere else was closed so I had a feeling [we would be too]. I got to sleep in and [my friends and I] went out to brunch. It was also great to sleep in,” said junior Carly Corbett-Frank.
The Quad was the popular spot to take pictures with friends, build snowmen and get into snowball fights. Remnants of the snow day fun were still visible the next day as students headed to class on Friday, as the college opened up at the usual time and the campus pathways were safely cleared.
Although this was the first class cancellation within the past two years at MC, what was more shocking was getting snow near the end of the winter season. In contrast to the warmer weather experienced on campus from Wednesday, it caught students off guard to wake up on Thursday with a snow day.
“It was a bit unexpected but I live in the area so I’m used to the snow levels we get. It ended up being freezing in my room [on Thursday]. I guess you could say [it was a tease of Spring on Wednesday],” said freshman Michael Collado.