Written by James Taylor
This past Thursday, Jan. 28, media consumption no doubt increased dramatically among Harding students.
Don’t worry – you didn’t miss the Super Bowl or American Idol. However, you may have been among the few who missed the Doppler radar on the local weather channel late that night, hoping for a white Friday. Fortunately, whether you missed the weather or not, you got to enjoy a day off from school due to snow and ice in Searcy.
According to weather reports, Searcy received about four inches of snow and close to a quarter inch of ice between early Friday morning and early Saturday morning. Harding University was one of many schools in the state to promptly respond to the winter storm by officially canceling all classes on Friday.
When asked about his day off, sophomore art major Austin Andrews said, “It was awesome. It’s never a bad thing when you plan on taking a test at noon, and instead you’re sledding.”
Sophomore fashion merchandising major Bonnie Stroud had a similar story.
“Let’s just say I wasn’t exactly prepared for or looking forward to going to classes Friday,” Stroud said. “I was so happy when I heard it was canceled, and I got to enjoy sleeping in.”
On Feb. 3, Danny DeRamus, head of Harding’s Physical Resource Department, had this to say regarding the snow, “The only thing left to do is to tidy up the areas that were damaged by the snow removal process. Gouges in the turf and tire marks, things like that.”
A day off, in Associate Professor of Marketing Dr. Rich Brown’s eyes, looks a little different.
“I walked to campus and spent most of the day grading papers in the office,” Brown said. “The biggest headache for me resulted from having to move an exam from Friday to Monday. The move was not difficult, but now I’m a day behind covering material and need to catch up before the next exam. The fact that this was my biggest headache shows how good life is.”
Whether you’re a student or professor, whether you slept in, went sledding, built a snowman or simply kept warm indoors, the consensus seems to be overwhelming thankfulness for an unexpected day off.
