photo by Elizabeth Berie
As weather conditions worsen, driving becomes treacherous along the streets surrounding Point Park University. 

Many students and professors have found their classes cancelled due to the recent weather and general difficulty making into the city. Non-commuters have also faced difficulty due to the icy conditions around campus.  

Many students around the school have been reporting that their classes have been cancelled multiple times within the same week and feel cheated out of their money. 

Shalida Dobbins, a freshman broadcasting major said that her Oral Communications class has been cancelled three times since the beginning of the semester out of only five possible classes she could have attended. 

Lindsey Palmer, a senior photography major was on her way into town on the bus, which is already often late in the winter, for her Shakespeare class when she received an email notification on her cell phone telling her that her class was cancelled.

The weather conditions have also negatively affected student athletes.

“I’m on the track team and we run up to The Point and back,” Candice Stein, a sophomore legal studies major said. “It’s a problem because we tend to slip and fall on the ice [and] it seems like they don’t really salt the sidewalks very well and even just walking to 7-11. It’s bad.”   

These are seasonal circumstances that inconvenience not only the students of the school but also the faculty.

Dr. Barbara Barrow, a professor at Point Park, said that since she is not used to the cold climate of Pennsylvania, her general disposition is diminished because of the weather.  Barrow also takes the bus to school and like so many commuters is often inconvenienced by the late bus.

Generally three absences are allowed in a class that Barrow teaches, but if one is unable to come to school for a reason that is out of their power, compassion is given after explaining the situation. 

“When there aren’t as many people to participate, it throws off the dynamic of the class and the lesson plan wouldn’t be as effective if the class were all present,” Barrow said Feb. 2 in her Lawrence Hall office.

Lou Corsaro, the Managing Director of University Marketing and Public Relations, said that in cases of severe weather, he alerts a committee of four people who are responsible for the decision and it must be made by 5:45 a.m. or if the classes are in the evening, 3:00 p.m. 

Corsaro can then broadcast it around Point Park in the various forms of media that students have access to regarding news around campus.

The general consensus by students is the roads need better management, and they feel unsafe in their everyday navigation of the campus and getting to Point Park to begin with.

photo by Elizabeth Berie