Stony Brook students hoping for a second snow day this week were met with disappointment after the school announced a delay on Thursday.
“Good morning SB,” the Stony Brook University Emergency Management (SBUEM) Twitter account tweeted at 4:42 that morning. “All classes that begin prior to 10am are canceled. All classes that begin at or after 10am are being held as scheduled. Clinical rotation questions should be directed to clinical coordinators.”
Good morning SB. All classes that begin prior to 10am are canceled. All classes that begin at or after 10am are being held as scheduled. Clinical rotation questions should be directed to clinical coordinators.
— SBU Division of Enterprise Risk Management (@sbu_erm) March 22, 2018
The tweet received over 160 replies, most of which were from angry commuter students expressing their frustration with the decision.
One of these students was senior mathematics major Khalid Urysohn. In order to make it to class for a midterm, Urysohn said he spent an hour digging out his car from the snow and then drove from Massapequa on slippery roads.
“It was not safe to drive and the whole way I was disappointed they would force me to drive through that,” he wrote in an email. “I don’t think Stony Brook takes into account its commuters who live far away and they completely dropped the ball on this one.”
Others, such as Twitter user @ZhengGong6, shared pictures of unplowed roads and snowed-in cars to demonstrate the difficulties they would face in their commute.
https://twitter.com/ZhengGong6/status/976788093738078208
The SBUEM account tweeted out its own photoset with pictures showing that most of the major roads had been cleared.
SB Community. Major roadways (LIE, NSP, CR 97, Sunrise, SSP) including into Nassau are down to blacktop in virtually all places. Secondary roads are also passable in many areas. Allow xtra time but less traffic than normal. Academic concerns should be directed to your professors pic.twitter.com/cVDJhhBbxM
— SBU Division of Enterprise Risk Management (@sbu_erm) March 22, 2018
This tweet provoked responses from several more commuters, including sophomore biochemistry major Jillian Brauer. “This doesn’t account for individual neighborhoods and time it takes to shovel 2 feet of snow to get to a 10am class. It also doesn’t account for delays on the LIRR and communities that are not plowed by the town and have to wait for a private company to plow,” she tweeted.
While Brauer said she did not believe a cancellation was necessary, she was still upset with the way SBUEM handled the situation.
“My problem was not with the main roads but with the lack of sufficient time for things to clear up,” the Selden resident wrote in an email. “The timing was so insufficient for people to safely clear driveways and roads and slowly drive to school by 10 am.”
In a reply to Brauer’s tweet, SBUEM stated it was acting in the best interests of the whole campus, not just the commuter students.
“We understand that people travel to Campus from a variety of locations. The LIRR is on or close to schedule. 11,000 students live on campus. Decisions to travel should be based on the individuals circumstances, we are a Campus of more than 50k people.”
We understand that people travel to Campus from a variety of locations. The LIRR is on or close to schedule. 11,000 students live on campus. Decisions to travel should be based on the individuals circumstances, we are a Campus of more than 50k people
— SBU Division of Enterprise Risk Management (@sbu_erm) March 22, 2018
