The Lesson: It’s a cold, harsh world out there.

Look out there. It's a metaphor! Gean Shanks / The Lumberjack

The Story: Back in the day, NAU never called snow storms. There were no online classes, no emails (to announce a cancellation), no convenient snow removal machines. Risks were higher, but less people lived off campus and even out of town, commuting on closed highways. As far as we know, no student has ever died as a direct result of the snow, but there are always the dangerous factors with driving or walking in zero visibility. Last year, The Lumberjack lost (but not in the dead sense) its adviser to a terrible, cane-inducing fall because of ice on campus.

But ice is a whole different issue. Sometimes, the weather is so bad, it cannot be described as anything other than a blizzard or storm. These words mean there is a certain violence in the weather; any one caught up in a storm is put directly in harm’s way. Therefore, not calling snow days in the midst of a blizzard is almost a purposeful negligence for lives. Thanks, NAU.

KJACK Samuri protests the weather with his lovely shade of lipstick and ...shades. Gean Shanks / The Lumberjack

The Reasoning: They just don’t care. In the end, sonny, it’s all about money and serving one’s own needs.

P.S. Take the “Do you feel NAU unnecessarily puts the lives of students and faculty at risk by not calling snow days?” poll. I voted for “That’s kind of a leading question… .” But I also made the poll myself.