What do you think about “snow days” in college? Are they given too little or too often? Do “snow days” inconvenience you or do you enjoy them?
John Krafka, Aviation Maintenance Technician
“They’re awesome, can’t get enough of them. I think they’re given enough, we know how to drive in snow here, so I don’t think it’s a big deal if there’s a little snow on the ground, we all can make it here. I don’t think there’s an excess given, I don’t think there’s not enough given. No, what’s a day here missed on the syllabus, you know what I mean? We can make up a day here and there, it’s not a big deal, it happens. We have to adjust in life, that’s what it is. . . [On snow days] I stay inside, I bundle up, I get inside of a blanket with a heater on and I just don’t even worry about going outside. I eat food and relax.”
Nate Buchanan, Liberal Arts Major
“I love them because it gives you a break. I’m a returning student, I was at Sinclair back in 2010, and I dropped out because I couldn’t focus enough, but snow days would have really helped me have a break from all the chaos. . . this year has been okay, I would say. I would say one day we had was really bad. That was really the worse weather day we’ve had. . . no, [snow days are not an inconvenience] because I really just have to drive into school, and I usually find out there’s no class when I get here. I’m not the kind of person that gets mad at that stuff. If anything, I just drive to school, and if I have the time, I just spend it doing homework or something. It gives me more time with that because I can’t do it at home, I don’t focus at home.”
Julia Guzman, Biology Major
“I think it’s a little rough sometimes, especially if you have morning classes, to make an effort to get here knowing that other schools are closed. . . but other than that, not too bad. Considering this year, we haven’t had a terrible winter, but in past years, I feel like we should have [had more snow days]. I know a few weeks ago I missed my first science lab because of how terrible [the weather] was. School wasn’t cancelled. I missed it because I couldn’t get my car out of the snow. I feel like we should get some more [snow days], or at least delays. A lot of my professors in past years have been really good with cancelling their own classes. I like that. . . as long as it’s one day, we’ll get past it, because I know the rest of the week, I know what’s going to happen later in the week, and it’s easy to adjust. I feel like a lot of professors and students get scared of not sticking to the schedule, but it’s easy to adjust.”
Zach King, Multimedia Journalism Major
“They’re pretty great but kind of inconvenient when it comes to doing school work, coming to school and trying to get stuff done. Sometimes the class understands and they push things back, but sometimes classes don’t push due dates back, and that kind of messes me up a little bit. It’s just having the time—sometimes I have to come to Sinclair to work on things, and not having that availability because of the snow being that bad, if we’re having a snow day here, it’s rough. . . this year there’s been no snow. The previous year, I feel like it’s been pretty fair. There were so many bad days that they had to just open school even though weather conditions and the roads weren’t the best. But I don’t blame them because kids have to go to school eventually. It’s been pretty in the middle of the road. . . please let there be more snow so we can have some snow days!”
Reporting and photos by Maggie Stacey