Winter Storm Titan caused a lot of hype for most of the United States, including West Chester University. Over the weekend Accuweather and The Weather Channel made it sound as if southeastern Pennsylvania would get hit with anywhere from four to eight inches of snow. Some earlier reports from Accuweather and The Weather Channel indicated the possibility of snow exceeding 12 inches locally. With the winter we have been having in this area, it is easy for one to believe that we would get hit with yet another heavy snow fall. Over the weekend, I was expecting to have Monday, Mar 3rd off as a snow day, probably like many other students, but what I did not expect was to receive a text message from the University on Sunday, Mar 2nd around 12:30 p.m. Initially I did not think that is was premature of the University to cancel classes that early, but as the day progressed with little or no precipitation falling, I began to think that the University overestimated how much snow we would get. Even late Sunday night, there was little snow falling and little accumulations of snow on the roads and sidewalks. Waking up Monday morning I expected to see the damage that Winter Storm Titan had caused, but when I looked out my windows on around 9:30 a.m. I could already see the University’s maintenance crew hard at work and could see the sidewalks and roads were plowed and cleared and the shuttle bus running. Now on my day off I cannot help but think that the University unnecessarily gave us a snow day when there is concern for not having enough instructional time due to the seven previous snow days and a few delays. I think the University would have been fine with either having a two hour delay or having classes from 12 p.m. and on meet as scheduled. I also hope that professors will be more inclined to utilize the functions that D2L offers such as dropboxes for written assignments or assignments that use Excel as well as the discussion board to replace in class discussions to count towards participation. It is a shame that we have all of this technology available to us and yet most times it goes unused in situations like this. I think students and professors alike would rather make up class time or keep on track with assignments through D2L or other online methods as much as possible as opposed to having to come in on a Saturday to make up class time. I just hope that moving forward professors who do not normally use D2L at all or who do not use many of D2L’s features consider to make some changes and adapt for this semester given the circumstances. I also hope that West Chester University going forward will be more conservative when making decisions about if they should have a delay or cancel classes to wait and see if the storm ends up being as bad as the weather reports make it out to be. Hopefully the worst of the snow storms are over so we can enjoy some spring weather soon and actual go to classes stay motivated in our classes.
Michelle Carstens is a fourth-year student majoring in business management and minoring in Accounting and Finance. She can be reached at MC736130@wcupa.edu.