As I am sure every student on campus has seen in the past month, this winter has brought on a lot of snow, bringing about early cancellations, delays and the like. What I’m sure everyone has also seen is the amount of snow and ice around Stony Brook’s main campus, where there were large sheets of black ice and a couple of plowed paths that allowed students to treacherously get to each of their classes.

Now, what I am sure a lot of people could not really see very well, possibly because they were stuck in their dorms or at home, was the cleared turf in the Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium in anticipation for the lacrosse games that were taking place on the weekends.

First off, let me say this: I understand that sports are important to a university, since they bring in revenue for the school itself. Lacrosse in Long Island is no exception to this, since Long Island is, more or less, one of the strongest “lacrosse hot spots” in the United States.

However, that does not mean that the school should neglect the student body, and what I mean by that is the area around the dorms/the main campus should be plowed and salted efficiently first, then do the turf field later.

They did plow the campus, I understand that, but it was still dangerous to travel around the campus. I remember walking to one of my morning classes where, after watching multiple people either fall or stumble in front of the SAC, I myself almost slipped on a patch of ice outside of the Psychology A building.

Apparently the dorms themselves were not properly taken care of since, on some of the outside staircases that lie on the sides of the dorm buildings, snow/water that froze overnight made for an extremely treacherous descent down to the ground. Not only does this cause a hassle, but it is also a hazard in the event of an emergency, where students may not have a safe route to evacuate a building.

However, in light of this, I want to say thanks to the Stony Brook crews for cleaning up the university the best that they could. All that I am saying is that the university’s administration could have allocated more resources to helping clear the main campus first, then clearing the turf field for the lacrosse games. And if anything, they could have pushed the games back by a couple of hours so that they could make sure that there would not be dangerous paths that students and faculty have to take to get to class, or at least try to make it more safe for the students and faculty alike to get around the campus. That way, we would not have to risk winding up on our back with every step that we take.