JENNA DRAKE
Special to The Leader
Over the past few months, SUNY Fredonia and its surrounding communities have received debilitating amounts of snow and ice storms.
Feet of cold, wet gunk accumulate in only a few hours while chilling temperatures aid Jack Frost’s weekly chicanery.
From the first of December up until Feb. 14, the Fredonia/Dunkirk area has had 30 accounts of snow, ice and/or rainfall reports, keeping in mind that many of these accounts can last for a period of several days at a time. Although not all of the reports were severe accounts, they still had a considerable effect on all of the students and members of the Fredonia community.
There have been daily complaints from students and staff surrounding the maintenance of campus sidewalks and walkways during these winter months.
Many students, including myself, have fallen on sheets of ice simply walking to class or to the parking lot. One of my closest friends, although clumsy, slipped and fell down a flight of stairs outside Fenton Hall just last week, which happened to be a relatively calm day for snow and wind. Just today, I heard a classmate saying how bad their leg hurt due to slipping and falling on ice.
There are two separate issues here: plowing and salting.
First and foremost, plowing is not only needed on main accessways to academic buildings but on the entire campus. Many students have jobs off-campus, as well as student teaching obligations where they need to access their car, and should not be at risk of hurting themselves on the walk there.
It is simply discriminatory to NOT acknowledge the students who have mobility-based disabilities in this discussion. Not providing access to cleared sidewalks is purposefully creating an environment that is more challenging for students with disabilities and the campus as a whole. If SUNY Fredonia wants to take action in protecting its students and accommodating those with disabilities, they could at least shovel a path.
I understand the fact that many members of the groundskeeping staff are underappreciated and possibly underpaid (that information is publicly available), but it does not diminish the need for comfortability and safety on our campus.
It seems as though our safety is only a concern for three feet of snow or more, but can be ignored with anything less than this, including sheets of ice and slippery slush.
Salt seems to come and go as it feels as though the minute the ice begins to melt, the sidewalks suddenly become salted, but when the ice is actually a problem, nothing.
I have discussed my concerns with one of my professors from last semester, Dr. Brian Boisvert, and he proposed the idea that since SUNY Fredonia is only about four miles away from its main water source (Fredonia Reservoir), there may be a runoff pollution effect from using rock salt. As Fredonia is less than 15 minutes away from this source, it may actually be contaminating our water with a highly increased chloride level.
Although this is concerning and needs to be addressed with efficiency, I honestly cannot believe that SUNY Fredonia has a genuine concern for the environmental impact of rock salt, as other environmental issues such as effective recycling or reduction of waste haven’t been on their radar.
I’d also like to address the rock salt shortage occurring throughout the country as a possible point to why less salt is being used on campus.
According to local and national news sources, including WGRZ, a Buffalo news source, there has been a struggle to maintain regular quantities of rock salt.
“We were able to get some rock salt last Thursday and Friday, maybe seven pallets, and we were selling it as fast as we could put it out,” said the manager at Ace Hardware in Lancaster, NY.
Although this amount of salt may sustain the needs of a few hundred driveways, it doesn’t compare to the salting needs of the many surrounding college campuses, not to mention other public spaces.
I’m sure that other SUNY schools throughout New York are experiencing salt shortages, but if there really is a scarcity problem, why would Fredonia not inform their students about the issue? Also, what plans are being put in place to tackle the issue of our collective safety?
Our administration must understand that the needs of every student should be met, not only during several feet of snow but also during regular snow and ice. No student or faculty member should be injuring themselves or worrying about that.
When one of the larger storms took place in the first two weeks of December, classes were canceled and plans were made to promote the safety of the students.
An email was sent to students and staff on Dec. 12 to inform them about the cancellation of classes, which included this statement:“The safety of our students, faculty, staff, and visitors is always our top priority.”
According to Fredonia’s Head of Groundskeeping Richard Newton, “We started planning for it when I was getting the forecast about a week in advance, to get as much equipment ready as possible.”
It seems unfortunate that only extreme storms take serious planning, and I wonder if, with the same time and care, our community could feel a bit more confident in their own safety on school grounds.