{"id":25006,"date":"2024-01-31T14:05:33","date_gmt":"2024-01-31T22:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=25006"},"modified":"2024-02-07T13:24:11","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T21:24:11","slug":"students-upset-over-camosun-college-snow-closures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2024\/01\/31\/students-upset-over-camosun-college-snow-closures\/","title":{"rendered":"Students upset over Camosun College snow closures"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, January 17, and Thursday, January 18, snowfall caused Camosun College to cancel classes and close its doors at noon on both days.<\/p>\n

Some students were happy with the college\u2019s decision, but others were quick to question why it decided to open in the first place, criticizing the foresight of decision-makers.<\/p>\n

Those students promptly took to Instagram to voice their concerns, like user @coltongaley, who commented \u201cStellar call! Lets risk the students safety by bringing them in, and then double down and send them back home…????\u201d in response to Thursday\u2019s closure announcement.<\/p>\n

First-year Nursing student Jack Wilson says he\u2019s concerned about the conditions he witnessed at Interurban campus on Wednesday, January 17. He wishes the college had closed on both days, noting that \u201cStudent safety should always be a priority over education.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, I think that the college handled it with a little bit too much apprehension around their decision of keeping the campus open or closed,\u201d says Wilson. \u201cOn the first day of closures… I had a lab class in the morning, and the parking lots weren\u2019t cleared, there [were] people slipping up and down the driveway, kind of pulling up into the last entrance up to the campus. It was just a mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dental Assistant student Chelsey Walsh has similar concerns for student safety, saying that during her class on Wednesday, many students\u2014especially those who live further away from campus\u2014were anxious about getting home safely.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, the first day, sure, call it, we can give them a free pass for that,\u201d says Walsh. \u201cBut just going off how everything went that first day, it just didn\u2019t make sense to make the exact same mistake over again. You know, look at the forecast, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s going to snow, let\u2019s not put our students in danger by making them go in.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Indigenous Studies student Makenna Whetung also feels that there was a lack of foresight in opening the college campuses on both days, especially with Vancouver Island\u2019s limited resources for snowfall.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Snow at Camosun’s Lansdowne campus on January 17 (photo by Greg Pratt\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI felt like they didn\u2019t handle it well,\u201d says Whetung. \u201cBeing on Vancouver Island, we know that people aren\u2019t really prepared for the snow, and we know that we don\u2019t have the infrastructure to deal with the snow. So, I think them closing at noon the first day was really not good, and then the second day, they didn\u2019t learn anything from that. I think it was just really unsafe.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Camosun executive director of communications and marketing Rodney Porter says that the decision to close campus is never taken lightly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at the forecast, we\u2019ve got folks on-site on campus, we\u2019re looking at the buses, you know, we\u2019ve got the news turned on, we\u2019re watching social media, we\u2019re watching all the other school districts,\u201d says Porter. \u201cWe\u2019re in touch with BC Transit at 5 am, 6 am; we know what\u2019s going on. So, we made the decision on Wednesday to open campus based on the weather conditions at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porter says the first thing taken into consideration during the decision-making process is the safety of the people travelling to campus. He says that the roads were fine on his drive in to work on Thursday, January 18, and points out that if the college were to close based on the weather forecast and it changed, it would be criticized for that as well. However, he acknowledges the upset students and says that the college is always willing to take feedback into consideration.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do appreciate and I do empathize with students,\u201d says Porter. \u201cWhether you\u2019re driving or whether you\u2019re taking public transit, I think it\u2019s important that the college empathizes and realizes that it is\u2026 not just an inconvenience to students, we do have to take into consideration safety aspects like getting home. Especially, I think, it\u2019s harder whenever you do a midday closure, as opposed to just saying \u2018We\u2019re closed.\u2019 I realize that, and I acknowledge that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) executive director Michel Turcotte says that he doesn\u2019t envy the people in charge of making the decision to close the school, because there will be criticisms either way. He does, however, think that there needs to be better protocol in place for students who can\u2019t vacate the college right after a closure announcement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think the college needs to work on a better plan for students that can\u2019t leave immediately,\u201d says Turcotte. \u201cWe got some complaints in relation to that. Apparently, on [Lansdowne campus] they left the Fisher building open for another hour, but I don\u2019t think that was communicated to students, and it should be maybe a bit longer than that… That is a protocol that I think the institution and the CCSS has to work on in terms of letting students know there will still be a safe space for students to go.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, January 17, and Thursday, January 18, snowfall caused Camosun College to cancel classes and close its doors at noon on both days. Some students were happy with the college\u2019s decision, but others were quick to question why it decided to open in the first place, criticizing the foresight of decision-makers. Those students promptly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,305],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-february-7-2024"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25007,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25006\/revisions\/25007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}