BCIT students awoke this morning to a heavy blanket of wet snow that fell overnight. This is not the usual Valentine’s Day setting in Burnaby. I am sure that many students, myself included, looked out the window and thought “I hope class is cancelled today”. And then many students, myself included, would have opened their emails to find this message:
Unfortunately BCIT was still up and running without issues.
Although I was a little disappointed, I still admired how efficient BCIT is when it comes to informing students and staff of closures and other alerts and problems going on around campus. It’s so easy isn’t it? Waking up, checking your phone for a message you already know is going to be there and then going back to sleep until its time to go to class.
When I was growing up on the East Coast of Canada, if there was a snow storm we would have to get out of bed, turn on the radio and wait for the school closure report!
Living on campus takes a lot of stress away from these snowy days. The students who have to deal with cars, trains and buses are the ones who benefit the most from school closures. Although the Vancouver Transit system is also excellent at sending out alerts and status reports, many students still get stuck or delayed because of the weather. Last year I was on the 25 bus and had to walk to BCIT from Burnaby Hospital because the bus couldn’t make it down the hill.
So far this year, the weather has been pretty cooperative and students haven’t seemed to had a lot of issues. Last year was a different story. BCIT experienced snow, ice, and rain, disrupting exams, classes and daily commuting. But who are we to complain? The rest of Canada have it much worse and realistically, the snow will probably be gone by tomorrow!