LSU should consider making its motto “There will be school come hell or high water.”
LSU shocked many students Monday morning when the school tweeted, “#LSU campus remains open today, 10/26.”
There might as well have been a tropical storm in our backyards Sunday night — flooding in the Baton Rouge area caused numerous street closures, including Alaska Street, Nicholson Drive, Burbank Drive, Roosevelt Street, Bob Pettit Boulevard and Gourrier Avenue, among others.
Pictures surfaced on social media showing water near campus up to students’ knees and cars close to being totally submerged in water. The flood water was especially high near University House Baton Rouge and University Edge Baton Rouge.
Videos on Twitter showed students swimming, wakeboarding and using swan-shaped floating devices to get from University House to University Edge — that’s how deep the water was. It’s infuriating it rained during homecoming weekend, but what’s even more annoying is LSU decided not to cancel classes. The university believed because it was no longer raining or flooding, it was acceptable to still hold classes on Monday.
LSU did not consider the burdens the severe weather made on many students’ academic performance.
Accounting senior Kristin Swanson, whose car was ruined in the flood said, “I couldn’t get back to my school work, which was at my apartment … the water was too high everywhere to get back.”
LSU failing to cancel class sends students the message that its main concern is academics, but what about the safety of students? Some students contemplated risking their safety in order to get what they needed to prepare for their Monday classes. Nobody should have to do that.
“I was willing to damn near flood another car to get to it,” Swanson said.
She was unable to get to school the next day, and if school was cancelled, it would’ve saved her the stress of dealing with her car and emailing professors at the same time.
Yes, it’s possible to explain your situation to the professor and hope they understand, but we shouldn’t have to hope. Some professors may not be as understanding as others, and a student shouldn’t have to stress over whether their professor will excuse them.
LSU didn’t seem to care the flood happened on a Sunday. Sundays are typically the day students come back to town after leaving for the weekend. So, there are more students than usual unable to get on the roads due to the weather conditions.
Students took to Twitter to express their frustrations with LSU: “Y’all [LSU] don’t care about us,” @Oh_JayMoore said.
Other students were confused by LSU’s failure to cancel classes because of the number of streets that were still closed Monday morning. @FcknDapper tweeted, “But what about off campus students trapped by closed intersections?”
If this was a test to see how well this university cares about its students inconveniences, LSU failed.
During the next storm, LSU needs do a better job of taking everything into consideration. It may have been clear skies Monday morning, but there was an aftermath from the night before.
Clarke Perkins is a 19-year-old political science sophomore from New Orleans. You can reach her on Twitter @ClarkePerkins.