By Annika Wickham

On Feb. 10, residents of the Village on SUNY Oswego’s campus received the much anticipated snow plowing notice via email. 

Sent occasionally throughout the spring semester, these notices alert residents of the various halls on campus that they must move their cars out of their assigned parking lot for a certain amount of time so the college can come in and plow the piles of snow that builds up in between cars. For Village residents, cars had to be moved by 5 p.m. the day the email was sent and had to be out of the temporary lot by 7 a.m. the next day. 

Students who moved their cars had no way of knowing when the plowing starts or ends, unless they constantly look out their windows. The plowing started around 8 p.m. and finished around 8:45 p.m., which gave residents almost 12 hours to take the walk to the temporary lot and drive their vehicle back. That is if they could even find a parking spot, as the Village lots are consistently full and people have to park in these other lots anyway. 

Residents have wanted more parking for the Village for years due to the severe discrepancy between students with cars and spots. The nearest parking lot where those with a Village parking pass can legally leave their cars is an almost 10 minute walk, which is not far, but keeping in mind that Oswego winter nights average 15 degrees and the wind is constantly blowing, it feels like much longer. 

Due to the plowing schedule and the threat of getting a ticket or their car towed, residents had to make the trek to the temporary lots late at night and hope there was an open spot by the time they got there. SUNY Oswego did offer to help start cars an hour and a half before the 7 a.m. deadline, but it seems very unlikely that college students would wake up just to move their vehicle before then. 

It is assumed that SUNY Oswego follows a schedule with plowing residential lots, because there is no other explanation to why they would plow last week when they did. The week of Feb. 6-12 was one of, if not the warmest of the semester so far, with temperatures in the low 40s and little or no snow accumulation. By the time the plow notice went out, there was barely any snow left to move. The only difference before and after was the three or four spots that had been unusable due to snow pile up were now available again. The rest of the area had no change. 

It makes no sense why SUNY Oswego decided to plow residential parking lots when they did. The argument could be made that they wanted to get it done when there was no change of snow, but why wait so long? Why not help students out in the days after a major storm instead of letting all the snow melt or turn to ice, which is not moved during plowing anyway? 

No one likes moving their car and risking losing their prime spot, especially in the winter. Being forced to move it and back in one night with less than a day’s notice, and having to do it after most of the snow is gone just seems completely unnecessary. 

Photo via Flickr