On March 31, 2014, something unsurprising happened: it snowed once more on Long Island.
Monday’s crazy bout of early spring snow created horrible traffic jams all throughout Long Island: Nicolls Road, one of the major roads that most commuters use to get to class, was an absolute mess, while I’m sure the L.I.E., Route 25A and 347 could not have fared any better. Cars were stuck on the shoulders of highways—some cars were skidding out through intersections, while some physically went through the barriers on the sides of the road.
Besides messy roads, Stony Brook’s bus transit system was shut down for a couple of hours, stranding many students who braved the elements in the giant South P parking lot. I found myself waiting at the Wolfie’s Hut station in South P when a student yelled out in the hut that all the buses that would have normally taken us to the SAC Express Loop were not coming.
However, Stony Brook also decided that they were going to keep every class on and running. I mean it clearly makes sense to have your commuter students, who make up the majority of the population of your school, drive to campus in dangerous conditions and then cancel all of the buses that take them to the main campus. It’s not like a student could have been killed—I myself skidded out a dozen times and was almost hit twice trying to make it on time to my class.
While the whole “almost crashing trying to get to campus commute” was an absolute blast, I would specifically like to thank Stony Brook’s Administration for being incompetent and not telling their students that they were canceling the buses: I did not receive a single phone call, text message, or email from the school telling me about the bus cancellations. Like I said above, one student called the transportation services and spread the message to the rest of us.
I would like to apologize to the people working on the operating line for the transportation services, since I am sure you were all yelled at for something you had no control over. It shouldn’t have been you guys taking those calls, but rather the administration. It’s alright though, I understand that they don’t really care much for their students.
I also understand that we have had a lot of snow days this year, which was why classes were kept going. But at least tell us that the buses are not going to be running, or give us a delay so that no one would get injured trying to get to campus or walking to class. I’m just glad that no one was injured; the administration had a hard time canceling the buses, let alone handle a lawsuit.
