Instead of planning ahead and making sure the roads and sidewalks are clear, Cortland adores waiting until there is 5 inches of snow on the ground to shovel and put salt down.
Cortland does a terrible job preparing and maintaining safe conditions when it snows out. Since it loves to snow everyday in the winter, this is a every day battle that grows old super quick. The struggle of shuffling across thick sheets of patted snow on the sidewalks and navigating slippery slush on campus roads are the normal.
Even if there is a notice or warning from the weather center that the forecast is calling for snow, it seems Cortland does not know how to simply drop down salt to possibly combat the ice. It is apparently also not normal for plows to pass by on a tentative schedule as snow falls. They wait until the roads turn all white to start cleanup.
Cars slide turning into the paid lot near Neubig, cars get stuck on the hill coming up to the library, and others can’t park because the snow is too unmaintained. Students, faculty, residents, etc. are all negatively affected. It is bad enough that the city of Cortland is not as diligent, but for the campus to not be as diligent is even more surprising.
The plows that are meant to clear the sidewalks of Cortland do not know what “clearing” the snow is. Instead of making a clear path or even scrapping a clear path, the plows pact down a solid sheet of snow to turn into ice. Students are then left to navigate a hockey rink while walking to class. Students fall down the steps, hill, sidewalks, crosswalks, etc. It raises the question if un-shoveled fluffy snow is better than manual clearing the paths.
Students always post on YikYak complaining on the conditions of both, the roads and sidewalks. It is not a hidden secret that the maintenance is awful as any student can see it. The students also pay lots of money to attend the school, so the common thought would be that the school would have enough resources to do a job that will create safer conditons.
It seems Cortland thinks salt is a foreign concept. If the forecast says it will snow five inches the night before, no salt will be dropped. The roads are a saltless pretzel.
The amount of accidents that happen to due the poor maintenance seem to be more common, as well as people getting hurt. Numerous students have reported how they slipped and hurt themselves on YikYak as well.
The safety of the people who attend this school is very important. They do a great job with keeping people safe in any other circumstances. However, when there is white stuff falling from the sky, they fall short.
Hopefully more students do not need to be hurt before the school notices. It raises the question if they are even aware of their poor management on snow. Either way, Cortland needs to do a much better job on their snow maintenance because all it is is creating hazards.