Dear editor,
Let’s take a second to reflect on the last few days about snow and sleet and think of the choices that were made by the University in response.
This is not me calling for a revolution or getting up in arms about Murray State’s choices on how to handle inclement weather, this is simply me displaying the situation from an average student’s viewpoint.
You know, the one Murray State should want to hear.
When faced with inclement weather, every educational institution has to figure out which to prioritize: the students’ safety or the students’ need for education.
In 100 percent honesty, it’s a catch 22. You will have students who are on both sides of the spectrum and any choice you make in the situation will be looked at poorly upon by at least a fraction of the student body.
The weather this Monday was terrible, but you also have to remember that several students are having their first exams this week and a world-renowned scientist was flying in from Los Angeles specifically to educate, inform and entertain the?Murray State student body.
If Murray State had closed school on Monday, they would have had to cancel Bill Nye and moved around countless exams which would have made everything a huge mess.
So, we can see that Murray State prioritized the students’ education in this situation, which they can’t fully be ridiculed for.
We all pay a large amount of money to have this institution educate us and they were only trying to keep that promise to us by keeping school open.
One thing I am thoroughly upset about is this “Inclement Weather Schedule” which was enacted by the University here recently.
Not only was this plan extremely confusing, but it was poorly advertised and was spread by a simple e-mail and word of mouth.
When Murray State says that all classes will have a two-hour delay, but then in reality they release a graphic representation of the schedule that shows they actually mean one-hour and 50-minute delay it results in countless students (including myself) becoming extremely confused about the schedule and showing up 10 minutes late to class (which I also did.)
In high school, two-hour delays weren’t exactly snow days, but we loved those extra two hours of sleep and Xbox time just as much.
But this is no longer high school, Murray State. Those two hours of simply pushing the schedule back in hopes of the ice melting (which it didn’t) heavily impacted several students’ schedules who simply can’t push their personal and professional life back two hours.
Even though I am a full-time student, I also have a part-time job on campus and I am the president of a Greek organization.
I am easily not the busiest student at Murray State, but my life can’t be simply pushed back two hours like it could when I was in high school.
I missed several hours of pay because of the schedule and I was just lucky I work on campus and my boss understood the situation.
Now, let’s think of those who the schedule impacted more heavily; students who have full or part-time jobs off campus then had to choose between their educational and their professional obligations to their workplace, which is a situation that Murray State should have considered before making this delay.
What about commuters? A large part of our student body regularly travels from the surrounding areas like Paducah and Hopkinsville, where the roads were terrible.
These students already run on a strict schedule because of their commute time and you go and throw a two-hour delay at them and act like you are doing them a favor? Get real.
In all reality, Murray State was handed a tough hand this Monday that left them in between a rock and a hard place.
Even though I would have loved to have a snow day where I didn’t have to put on pants and waking up at noon was socially acceptable, I think Murray State made the right choice in not canceling school even though it was an unpopular decision.
I do think Murray State really needs to look over how they will handle inclement weather in the future and try to come up with a consistent and understandable plan that is communicated to the students in a timely manner, and not the night before in a campus email.
Oh, and as always, Go Racers!
Letter from Zac Garrison, Junior from Owensboro, Ky.