Posters inform students it’s cold out, pointing out the obvious

Amanda Siefken Opinion Editor

 

 Polar vortex? What is that even supposed to mean? It seems Mother Nature has been going through menopause for the past two months, and while I know “we are in South Dakota so we should be used to it,” this years weather is worse than I can ever remember. We know how to handle the bitterly cold days of January and February but hitting a wind chill of 36 below at least once a week is getting really old. 

The only ‘vortex’ I can see is the rotation of the weather patterns. The idea that it is only January and we could still have three more months of this blizzard life is just completely gross to me. We watch it snow, then it all freezes, then it melts, then it snows again. It is a terrible cycle that makes me wonder, what it would be like to live in Alaska, or Siberia. 

Now, I understand that we cannot cancel classes every time it is cold out, or snowing, we do live in South Dakota for goodness sakes, but the little posters that are on all the exit doors of residence halls, telling us how cold it is, do not help. 

For those of you that have not seen them, they all usually say something along the lines of “it is really cold out and the wind chill temperature is dangerous, so do not travel around or off campus, it is not safe. If classes are cancelled, they will post it on MyState.” 

This is a very misleading poster for two reasons. First, we know it is cold. We live here. Second, classes are never cancelled and telling us that they might be just gives the students false hope that they will not have to bare the cold the following day. 

We live on this campus, and in the Midwest in general, we know it is cold. The residence hall windows all grow ice on the inside of the room every year, that usually means that it is probably pretty cold outside. Telling us that people should not travel, or they should not leave campus if they do not need to, is completely hypocritical on the University’s part. Over the last three-day weekend, I personally chose not to leave town, little did I know how bad of a decision this was. It was extremely cold, and nothing was open for students to use, so we had to leave campus anyway. 

When posters are put up by any entity of SDSU, students do not tend to take them seriously because of these hypocritical examples. Telling us, as students, that it is not safe to travel to or around campus, but then still holding classes and telling us that we have to walk from our residence halls to Northern Plains BioStress Lab, or UPD right away in the morning, contradicts their posters hung around that are attempting to keep the safety of the students in mind. 

Classes are not going to be cancelled, we know that. The polar vortex, or Mother Nature’s menopause, whatever you want to call it, does not seem to be going away any time soon. The only thing I think posters should say would be, “Be careful, the sidewalks are covered in ice” or maybe even something positive like “It’s Friday, we guarantee there will not be classes tomorrow.” Six months from now, there will be posters that will say “It is hot out, do not stay outside for too long” Basically living here is an evil cycle of 100 degrees in the summer and 30 degrees below zero in the winter. Wear a coat, a hat, and maybe even gloves outside today, and keep in mind, pretty soon you will be able to complain about how hot it is again.

Amanda Siefken is majoring in political science. She can be reached at [email protected]