Snow day gives students winter reprieve
February 2, 2015
About 10 to 12 inches of snow pounded Northeast Ohio on Sunday and Monday, closing Kent State’s main campus and three of its branch campuses.
Kent State’s Trumbull, Salem and Geauga campuses as well as the university’s Regional Academic Center in Twinsburg and its College of Podiatric Medicine in Independence were closed today.
The university’s Ashtabula campus cancelled classes while its East Liverpool Campus was closed until noon.
The National Weather Service issued a Hazardous Weather Outlook for Northeast and Northwest Ohio as well as Northwest Pennsylvania effective until Sunday. Wind chills will be in the single digits below zero Tuesday morning and Thursday and Friday mornings.
Having a full day off from classes Monday gave students the opportunity to enjoy the cold weather.
Sunday night, students received a Flash Alert notifying them that all classes before noon were cancelled. It had been snowing for the majority of the day, leaving the campus covered in a blanket of white. So students joined together to create a huge snowball fight.
“I was in Eastway and I looked out the window and saw tons of people out there,” said Mackenzie Zeller, a freshman fashion merchandising major. “We went to just go look, but there were so many people that we decided to join in. There were literally hundreds of people.”
Campus buzzed with students outside playing in the snow. Besides the snowball fight, students went sledding on the hill outside of Taylor Hall.
Monday morning, students received another Flash Alert canceling all classes for the remainder of the day.
Kaitlyn Huddleston, a sophomore public health major, and her friends participated in the late-night snowball fight, and when they saw classes were cancelled Monday, they went sledding, raced down the hill on plastic trays, laughing and taking pictures.
Not all students used the day off to play in the snow. Some used it to relax and catch up on sleep.
“I’ve watched five episodes of ‘Vampire Diaries’ on Netflix,” said Courtney Proctor, a freshman accounting major. “I’ve also taken a nap today. That’s all I’ve done all day.”
Students also used the day to catch up on schoolwork and study.
“I’m getting homework out of the way and maybe later I’ll watch a movie,” said Nate Turner, a freshman theatre studies major. “When I got the email cancelling classes, I thought, ‘what a relief.’”
No matter what students did with their day off, campus was filled with activity. From snowballs and sledding to studying and watching Netflix, students used the day off to their advantage.
Contact Katie Chilson at [email protected].
