By Edita Bardhi
Opinion Editor

Since the spring semester began, the area of East Stroudsburg received multiple weeks’ worth of snow and ice.

Normally, the sight of snow is pleasurable to most individuals, but it certainly is not when it becomes a life risk and even a burden to clean up.

At East Stroudsburg University, students have found themselves tripping, falling and even sliding as they walk to their classrooms, their dorm rooms and other buildings around campus.

This is because the university has not been putting much effort into clearing the campus of any snow and ice.

As a resident at the university, I do notice the campus’s weather conditions and the way they are taken care of.

Lately, the university has done a poor job with making sure that the grounds are fully filled with salt before all students leave the campus buildings.

In addition, it took the university a while until the area was decently cleared from the snow and ice.

Obviously, we have not had just one snow day, but several.

Thus, it is understandable that it would take them a few hours.

However, my point is that they began cleaning midway through the days instead of early before 8 a.m. classes.

Whether I have been going to class or coming back from it, I have needed to walk through layers of snow.

In some parts of the university, the sidewalks have not been fully cleared of the snow.

For example, the walkway behind Laurel Residential Hall has a mixture of fresh snowfall and old.

This goes to show that the university has not cleaned up the first snowfall.

In fact, the snow are piled up to where sidewalks are nearly hidden because of the snow.

If not, the snow is piled up so high that students must jump to get on the road.

The roads themselves are filled with ice.

This annoys me to a certain extent because I prefer walking on a sidewalk rather than on the road.

Realistically, sidewalks are created so that pedestrians stay safe.

It is irresponsible for the university to put their students in such a situation.

Currently, we are entering our sixth week of the semester, and the campus is still covered in snow and ice.

Again, we have had multiple school closings; however, I would hope to see snow plows more often than I actually am.

Truthfully, I rarely see them on campus.

And I know I am not the only one who feels this way.

Most of my friends have ranted to me saying they almost slipped and hurt themselves.

“The school needs to put more effort when it comes to clearing up the ice on campus.

There have been many instances where I almost fell,” said junior Brithney Campbell.

In one instance, a student fell and injured himself on the ice.

Supposedly, he is alright; however, both his head and his behind were in pain for hours.

“I was walking back from the Union and it was like an ice skating rink by Laurel,” said junior Kiersten Knorr.

“Overall, the university has done a great job in trying to clear the snow off the sidewalks and streets for students to pass.

However, there have been a few times where I have found myself on the verge of slipping and/or falling on the ice,” said junior Gloria Hud.

On a separate note, more and more students are choosing to stay inside the buildings in which they are in for safety reasons.

On weekdays, students decide to stay all day at Kemp Library or at the Union.

On the weekends, many choose to stay in their dorm rooms.

They order take out, wait for late night, buy from the vending machines or try to snack on the foods stored in their dorm rooms.

Our last snowfall occurred this past Saturday.

So far, the campus has been getting cleared up since then. However, there is a lot more that the university can do.

The university must be more considerate toward their students, as well as their campus.

They have all the resources they need to ensure that they can remove all the snow and ice they possibly can.

Thus, they do not have any excuse to have a dangerous campus.

Email Edita at:
ebardhi@live.esu.edu