On Feb. 12, all SUNY Oswego students received an annual warning from the Office of Student Affairs: “Lake Ontario ice is not solid. PLEASE STAY OFF THE ICE.”
Sent by Dr. Jerri Howland, Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, the concise email detailed the importance for all students to stay far away from Lake Ontario and the Glimmerglass Lagoon during the winter months.
“Ice can be unpredictably thin … the wind is strong, the waves are overpowering and the water is freezing,” the email said. “Should someone venture too close to the lake when these conditions prevail, the results could be unfortunate and perhaps fatal.”
According to Howland in an email, the messages are standard and are “sent out each year during this time to warn students about the dangers of walking or playing on the ice.”
Lake Ontario is around 30 degrees Fahrenheit in certain areas and at the warmest around 60 degrees during the winter months.
Even with the water reaching near freezing, Lake Ontario rarely freezes over due to its depth, and its location being further east than the other Great Lakes. The other four Great Lakes often freeze mostly or completely over each year.
Lake Ontario is also fed by the Niagara River, which keeps the water circulating more compared to other lakes and keeps ice from forming.
Lt. Matthew Barbeau of University Police said monitoring the lake shore and around Glimmerglass Lagoon is important to help keep the campus population safe.
“[University Police does] our best to try and keep an eye out there, and if we see anyone headed out we ask them to come back off the ice,” Barbeau said.
Barbeau also said there had been no issues with students going onto the ice since he started working for SUNY Oswego in 1999.
“We haven’t had any incidents that I know of, of students falling into the lake after being out on the ice pact,” Barbeau said. “And I think one of the big reasons why is because the college is letting the students know it’s dangerous and it’s not safe to be out there.”
Though there have not been any injuries or accidents for over a decade on campus, Barbeau mentioned knowing rumors of a student, while he was in school who passed away after falling into Lake Ontario in the early 1980s.
“I had heard about a student who was out on the ice pact, and it broke free and he fell in,” Barbeau said. “[the ice] closed over top of him and he ended up drowning and passing away.”
Barbeau thinks this tragedy is one of the reasons UP and the SUNY Oswego Administration takes the danger of Lake Ontario so seriously.
“The safety of our students and all members of our campus community are first and foremost in our minds,” the email to students stated.
With winter lasting until April most years in Oswego and students settling back in after their break, the administration will continue to remind everyone on campus to stay far away from dangerous Lake Ontario ice.
