On Jan. 24, Ithaca College students were notified via the IC Alert System that the college would be in remote operating status from noon Jan. 25 until 11 p.m. on Jan. 26. The alert also stated that classes on Jan. 26 would not be held in person, giving students a “snow day.” As students gear up for a cold week, evidence of students enjoying the outdoors has popped up all across campus.
On the evening of Jan. 25, first-year student Joseph Ha and some friends in his dorm building in lower quads decided to try and get the entire residence hall to participate in a snowball fight on the lower quads lawn. Ha said that he and his friends knocked on several doors in the building, inviting people to the snowball fight at 8 p.m. that night.
“I think there were close to about 40 or 50 people,” Ha said. “I was pretty surprised. I thought people were just agreeing so we’d go away.”
Ha and his friends were not the only ones taking advantage of the snowy weather to have some fun. Sophomore Felix Aguayo said that he went snowboarding and sledding on the hill between East Tower and the Athletics and Events Center.
“We got asynchronous assignments [for both of my classes,] which is amazing because I can go outside whenever I want,” Aguayo said.
From snow angels in the pristine snow behind the Garden Apartments to a steady trail of sledders heading up any hill they can find, many students have been making the most of the weather conditions. But on the other hand, some students are still expected to keep up with their classes and homework. It was up to IC professors to decide how they wanted to conduct their classes. Some gave take-home assignments, some moved class to Zoom, and some canceled them completely.
Ha, a music education major, said that though he was happy to have a day off from classes, it would be hard for him to work on his coursework from his dorm.
“Since I’m a music student, it’s a little hard to deal with because I need to practice,” Ha said. “Music is a very physical thing, and so doing it remote is very hard to do.”
Sophomore Lillie Hoskins said that she still had multiple assignments and readings to do as well as taking one of her classes virtually on Zoom.
“I hate Zoom,” said Hoskins. “It feels so useless. … I would love to go play and frolic [in the snow] but I’m like ‘I have all of this stuff to do.’”
Hoskins said that being stuck on campus means that her girlfriend is unable to pick up an essential prescription. The snow also kept Hoskins from the birthday weekend that she had planned when her friends visiting from home decided to leave early to avoid getting stuck in Ithaca.
“My birthday party was Saturday night and they left six hours before my birthday party,” Hoskins said. “So that definitely put a damper on the weekend because you can’t ever really predict that, right?”
Aguayo said that he was supposed to be part of a student film set over the weekend that got canceled due to the weather.
“I wasn’t too upset about it though, since we got to play in the snow,” Aguayo said. “The roads were too bad to go to an actual skiing place like Greek Peak, which is also a little sad, but if there wasn’t snow I wouldn’t be going anyway.”
Ha said that participants in the lower quads snowball fight seemed appreciative of the opportunity to be social and outside in the snow.
“A lot of people explained that they just felt like ‘I’m so lazy and unproductive,’” Ha said. “But hosting this snowball fight really boosted morale … I might host another one [Jan. 26], who knows?”
