Tuesday’s snowstorm caused a blizzard of aggravation, but university officials said late Tuesday that the Columbus campus should operate as usual today.
As heavy snow fell throughout the day, Ohio State deployed a small army of 70 employees to clear the Columbus campus.
Some were scheduled to work overtime throughout Tuesday night, while others will come in at 3 a.m. Wednesday and work through the morning, said Wes Shinn, a Facilities Operations and Development spokesman.
Snow removal will focus on the Medical Center, the RPAC and the areas around dorms. Transportation and Parking will work to keep parking lots clear and CABS bus services will run as scheduled.
Workers “have done a terrific job,” said Bob Armstrong, director of Emergency Management. “It’s hard with all the foot traffic on campus.”
The main campus has closed because of winter storms only six times in the past 30 years. However, university officials will continue to monitor the situation for the duration of the storm, said Shelly Hoffman, a university spokeswoman.
“Each situation is considered holistically,” she said. “The university will consider if the roads and sidewalks are clear, whether buildings can be kept warm and if the weather is dangerous.”
Brittany Goad, a fourth-year in logistics, said she believes conditions are already dangerous, especially for those who commute to campus.
Goad’s 25-mile commute, normally a 30-minute journey, took her nearly two-and-a-half hours Tuesday. She passed four traffic accidents on her way to campus, but she chose to make the trip to avoid missing class.
“You’re stuck in a limbo where you don’t want to miss class because it hurts your grade, but you also don’t want to die on your way to campus,” Goad said.
Parking on campus also presented some challenges on Tuesday.
“There have been some problems with cars not being able to get out because snow plows have inadvertently plowed snow behind vehicles,” Shinn said.
Facilities workers were able to shovel them out but are running out of space to put the excess snow.
Decisions about closing campus are made with input from numerous university officials, Hoffman said. Officials from Facilities, Transportation and Parking, Public Safety, and Student Life will all make recommendations to Senior Vice President Jeff Kaplan. Those recommendations are relayed to Provost Joseph Alutto and OSU President E. Gordon Gee for a final decision.
Should campus close, essential services for students will remain open.
“Housing and dining are 24/7 operations,” said Ruth Gerstner, a spokeswoman for the office of Student Life. “We try to keep RPAC open too.”
Students living in the off-campus neighborhood are at the mercy of services provided by the city of Columbus.
Columbus has more than 2,000 linear miles of streets, the largest of any city in Ohio. As of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, 67 trucks were working to remove snow, said Rick Tilton, spokesman for the Columbus Department of Public Service.
Tilton hopes off-campus students remain patient while plows finish priority areas before clearing residential streets.
OSU’s five regional campuses were closed Tuesday, and OSU Newark will remain closed Wednesday, according to OSU Emergency Management and Fire Prevention.
