The freezing weather the University experienced this week doesn’t happen often, and students responded in very different ways.
Megan Schmidt and Megan Mineo, freshmen roommates who are active in Greek life, said they spent Monday night with friends at The House in Tigerland after hearing classes would be canceled, and they slept into the afternoon during the days.
When bored, Schmidt confessed to watching “Frozen” and “Grey’s Anatomy” “over and over.” The girls are Louisiana natives, and they said they resorted to using credit cards to scrape the ice off their cars.
University freshmen and high school buddies Scott Bowers and Daniel Maxey chose to live more dangerously during the snow days, taking Bowers’ two-wheel-drive Ford Ranger on a joyride early Wednesday morning.
The friends said they drove to the baseball field’s parking lots and did donuts for two hours until 2 a.m.
Bowers and Maxey said there were more students who had the same idea.
“We saw a couple other people that looked like they were up to no good,” Maxey said.
Bowers said they eventually went to a different parking lot after seeing a police cruiser, and acknowledged they did “get a little carried away.”
Bowers and Maxey said they also helped push a car out of a ditch on Nicholson on Tuesday night.
“As they were driving, they kept sliding back toward the ditch,” Bowers said. “So we had to walk alongside the car and keep pushing it to keep it from going back.”
Freshmen Emily Staniszewski and Mimi Webb spent Tuesday night playing with the Bengal Brass ensemble at the Tigers’ 87-82 victory against the Kentucky Wildcats.
According to Staniszewski and Webb, the storm has affected recruitment week for Kappa Kappa Psi, the band department’s co-ed fraternity. Kappa Kappa Psi normally compares annual recruitment numbers with those of other chapters, but this year they’ve fallen behind because of the snow days’ interference.
“It was kind of stressful, but I realized that having these two days off was actually a good thing,” Webb said. “From the first day of school, things have just been incredibly busy.”
Despite the different ways the students spent their snow days, they were all fearful of the University’s cancellations affecting their upcoming breaks.
Schmidt and Mineo said they would prefer a shortened Mardi Gras break, because they’ve already paid for spring break vacations to Gulf Shores with their sorority sisters.
“I think I would just miss school anyway,” Mineo said.
Bowers and Maxey said they’d prefer neither spring break nor Mardi Gras break be affected by the snow days.
“It’s not our fault it’s cold outside,” Maxey said. “I want to have all my breaks.”

Gallery • 6 Photos

Taylor Balkom

Ice covers the infield tarp in Alex Box Stadium on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2014.