Beginning on Sunday night, 10 inches of snow blanketed Princeton’s campus. While students already on campus enjoyed the snow, other Princetonians found themselves unable to return for the start of the semester due to widespread travel disruptions.
A University TigerAlert Monday afternoon announced that some University facilities, including the Class of 1986 Fitness Center, Dillon Gym, and Firestone Library, would reopen at 5 p.m. Monday. Other facilities, such as the Princeton University Art Museum and the Racquet and Recreation Fieldhouse, are set to resume a normal schedule on Tuesday.
Members of the improv group Quipfire!, who were in Chicago for their winter tour, had originally planned to return to campus together on Saturday. After their flight was cancelled with just three hours’s notice, members scrambled to make new travel arrangements.
“We thought since it wouldn’t snow in New Jersey until Sunday, we were in the clear, but it actually started snowing in Chicago on Saturday,” Safinabonu Juraeva ’28 said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian.
“I booked multiple flights in an attempt to escape and beat the snow before it got too bad… [but] that didn’t work out,” Fayad Haghamed ’28 told the ‘Prince.’
In a Sunday announcement, the University shared that Monday classes would be held at the discretion of individual faculty. Some professors canceled them altogether or switched to virtual options due to the storm.
Juraeva was able to attend her organic chemistry lecture online on Monday, but missed a second class that had maintained in-person instruction.
Haghamed, who missed multiple classes due to the snow delay, shared with the ‘Prince’ that the experience was “rather frustrating.”
According to Haghamed, his math course had announced that “sending out recordings and doing Zoom apparently goes against department policies,” while his Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering course “also just did an in-person [class] without any virtual support.”
“Two of my classes [on Monday] were cancelled, and the third had a Zoom, but I was unable to attend due to my flight [back to campus],” Eli Padoan ’28 told the ‘Prince.’ After his original flight out of Puerto Rico was canceled, Padoan flew to Florida, where he remained until his Monday flight.
Joe Harris ’28, who had three flights from St. Louis cancelled over the weekend and on Monday, was able to attend his sole Monday class virtually. However, with a new flight scheduled for Tuesday morning, Harris expects to miss all three of his classes that day, as well as mandatory football team workouts.
“You want to be on top of classes, especially for the first week back. So it’s been kind of aggravating,” he said.
Compared to other Division I sports with a pre-semester practice schedule, the football team “already started at a disadvantage coming back so late,” Harris added.
Raven Reid ’28 expressed to the ‘Prince’ that she wished accommodations for stranded students could be extended by more than just one day.
“My flight was rescheduled to Tuesday night, which means I will also miss classes tomorrow. Tomorrow, since I have no additional grace period, I am expected to be in class,” she wrote in a statement to the ‘Prince.’ “I wish the University would take these travel delays into greater consideration.”
Princeton Public Schools stated in an update on its website that schools would reopen on Tuesday using a “90-minute delayed opening schedule” and advised students and parents to be careful returning to school, as temperatures were forecasted to drop once again and surfaces would refreeze.
NJ Transit shared on its website that rail service would operate under “Severe Weather Schedule Level 2.” Bus, light rail, and Access Link will operate on a normal weekday schedule.
Leela Hensler is a staff News writer and a staff Sports writer for the ‘Prince.’ She is from Berkeley, Calif. and can be reached at leela[at]princeton.edu.
Teresa Chen is a staff News writer from Shanghai. She can be reached at tc7069[at]princeton.edu.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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