Syracuse students react to winter weather

The normally bustling Syracuse University quad was almost silent on Sunday afternoon – save for a group of freshman girls laughing and taking photos by Hendricks chapel. In spite of over a foot of snowfall and wind chill warnings, the group decided to venture outdoors with a makeshift sled – a plastic trash can lid from their dorm.

They weren’t the only ones who decided to brave the elements. After making their way to campus to have a meeting for their comedy publication, The Kumquat, juniors Katherine and Julia Rossi, Eliot Raynes and senior Quincy Nolan decided to go back outside.

Raynes didn’t see anyone out and about earlier in the day, “except one man and a sled, and I was very impressed.” Inspired, the group located a large piece a cardboard and a hill to slide down near College Place. They determined that the snow was just a bit too powdery for sledding, but, Raynes believed, “if it warms up a bit the snow might be perfect.”

The four, ultimately unimpressed with what they deemed “the gentler slopes” took off toward a larger hill on Ackerman with their cardboard slab in tow.

Not everyone on campus is enjoying the winter weather. Sophomore Alsacia Diaz works in Schine Student Center, and passed students sledding on Euclid on her walk to work – which took longer than usual because of the bad road conditions. “The sidewalks were only partially shoveled so I had to walk in the street,” she said.

Schine was pretty quiet during her shift, with a few students stopping in to play pool downstairs, but mostly, “people are just coming in and out, getting some food and leaving,” Diaz said.

“Thank God there’s not classes tomorrow, because if there were it would be impossible to get around,” she said. “I just hope they get it cleaned up by Tuesday.”