Collegiate Times

Image: 2012-10-31 19:56:58

I want to know how many people had already made it downtown before they got the second alert. And what happened when they did? Did they go back to studying for that exam they had the next day, or were they already drunk and decided any effort would be worthless?

It was hard enough for me to refocus after the rabbling at the Empo had died down. I can’t imagine how impossible it’d be to go from celebrating with friends to studying statics, or another one of those classes engineers take that go way over my head.

Regardless though, here’s the thing we all have to realize: Tech made the right decision. The flip-flopping wasn’t exactly ideal, but what was the school supposed to do?

University officials thought Gov. Bob McDonnell’s executive order included colleges and Tech was required to close down. When they found out that wasn’t the case, it was a no-brainer.

Unlike Uva or Radford, Tech is a research institution first with a large portion of its budget tied up in staff and resources that burn capital regardless of if the school is open or not.

That’s why Tech almost never cancels class; it would lose way more than the average institution.

And in hindsight, Tech made the right call. It rained on Monday; there were power outages, but none were caused by the hurricane.

Canceling anything for inclement weather before it actually happens is moronic for this exact reason. This goes double in Blacksburg, where weathermen are as accurate as a broken Magic 8 Ball.

Even on Monday night, when conditions were at their worst, it was no different than an average night  in January; it was snowing and there were high winds.

If it wasn’t October, people wouldn’t so much as suggest a delay.

This wasn’t a scenario of people being legitimately worried about driving to classes; it was our inner-fourth grader throwing a temper tantrum.

So while I would have enjoyed a day off as much as anyone had Tech not changed its mind, I would have spent much of the day smiling and shaking my head.

Finally, it makes us look bad when people see us complain about having classes when we should be happy we only got dusted by Hurricane Sandy.

And if that’s not how you feel, maybe you should consider transferring to Rutgers. They got the entire week off. 

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A version of this article appeared in the Nov 1 issue of the Collegiate Times.