The Knox Student

Just after 11 a.m. this Tuesday, Director of Public Relations Karrie Heartlein sent out a campus-wide e-mail announcing that “reduced operations” would be in effect through the end of Wednesday. This meant that all administrative offices were closed, classes were canceled and only essential services such as dining services, student services and facilities were open.

This week, the staff of The Knox Student would like to officially thank everyone that still came to Knox to work during the snow closure. Those of us who are on board would not have been able to eat if it was not for those employed in the cafeteria coming in to work. The sidewalks would not be cleared by now if not for the people who work in facilities. Even the library stayed open which, although not as essential as food, is also appreciated in the midst of a blizzard.

We want to thank, especially, Campus Safety, for taking the time to gather a list of people who worked in Dining Services that would need to be picked up from their homes to be driven to campus.

We also appreciate how quickly everyone was able to organize to prepare for the storm and take care of the students on this campus. Director of Dining Services Helmut Mayer said that the cafeteria had all of their deliveries for Wednesday made on Tuesday. Even though the storm was over by Wednesday afternoon, Director of Campus Safety John Schlaf said that their number of calls was still greatly increased, and power outages on campus continued to be a problem.

We hope that everyone has enjoyed the fantasy-world of class cancellation and the multiple snow ball fights that have ensued. We urge everyone to enjoy the last minutes of it, because the chance of this ever happening again, or at least in the near future, is rare if not seemingly impossible. In the middle of all the festivity, the brief time off to catch up on work, the “winter flunk day” celebrations and the many naps, we hope that everyone takes the time to thank the employees who still came in to work to make this time of “reduced operations” better for everyone.

In addition, we would like to thank the students who tabled in the gallery of Seymour Union and gathered 500 signatures to say thank you to these staff members. The letter they addressed to President Roger Taylor as well as these signatures can be found in the online Discourse section.