After a blizzard accumulated up to 22 inches of snow across Bucks County and students and professors alike are facing icy interruptions to their daily routines.
According to the Patch, the most snow was seen in Langhorne and Richboro with an astounding 22 inches. Closer to Bucks’ main campus, however, 8 inches were seen around Newtown.
Bucks was announced closed early Sunday morning before the rain had turned to snow, which prepared students and professors for a brief snow day away from academia. This was the second closure of the campus in less than a month.
In a short interview with Journalism Professor Tony Rogers, he stated the following: “I’ve been teaching at Bucks for 28 years and I can’t remember having two closures due to snowfall within just a few weeks of one another.” In this seemingly unprecedented time, the call to close the campuses was well within safety expectations.
Rogers assures that snow days aren’t just enjoyable for some students, but some professors as well.
Though these snow days are of course a chance for students and professors alike to catch up on work, there might be a challenge for some students who aren’t able to get to campus. Rogers says that “I’m sure there are some classes that are more flexible, and able to adjust to things like this. Then there are others where it’s more difficult. A lab course might be an example.”
Each course has its own preparations for weather interruptions; STEM courses, however, could face some schedule push-back without access to the in-person labs.
A few students at Bucks are saying that they really don’t care about the snow day. Others, like Zach Weis, a psychology major, thinks “it’s actually quite wild. It’s awesome, I like the snow. Not everyone feels that way, and I understand. But it’s pretty darn cool, man.” Weis believes that even with interruptions, “the option of having Zoom classes online in these scenarios definitely lessens the blow of missing school.”
Another student at Bucks, Nicole Morrow, a journalism major, says “the first time Bucks closed, I was excited. I felt like a kid excited for a snow day, however, with the second closure I’m just ready for the snow to leave and the spring to come.” Though Morrow understands the safety reasons for which the campus had to close again.
Morrow is a firm believer in routine, saying “it can be frustrating, the more days we are closed. Things get pushed out of the way and as someone who relies heavily on routine, I get a little messed up when that happens.”
Some students can agree that the interruption to their routines throws off their day-to-day plans, and some would also agree with Weis that the snow day is simply “pretty darn cool, man.”
Overall, this blizzard has proved to be much less icy than the last snow storm Bucks County faced, and students and professors are expected to return to campus within the next day or so.