School safety at Eastern Washington University is crucial to both the students and faculty. Over the past couple of weeks, there has been excessive snowfall, as there is every year in this town. The sidewalks throughout campus are not as well kept or safe as they could be. Walking to and from class we have seen numerous people slipping and even falling on the walkways due to poor upkeep such as shoveling and de-icing.

So whose job is it to take care of this issue? The EWU website says the school will occasionally cancel classes when severe winter weather threatens safety, but what about the days when we don’t cancel? Who’s responsible for making our walkways safe for trudging? The school is. It is the responsibility of our school to take care of the snow and ice on the pathways so its students can get to class safe and uninjured.

There are a few solutions to choose from: EWU could have more grounds personnel, better equipment or more time. More personnel would be the best solution for the size of our campus to adequately remove the snow. The sections that are cleared seem to be done thorougly, but there are many walkways that need to be plowed as well. If there were more people hired to remove the snow, it would be cleared thoroughly and efficiently in less time.

As with every solution to a problem, there will be advantages and disadvantages. One disadvantage is that it would require the use of more campus funds to pay the extra personnel hired. Advantages to this solution include the safety of Eastern students and faculty. This in turn would result in a happier student body as a whole, reassuring students that Eastern Washington University does care about the safety and well-being of its students.

Sincerely,

Lauren A. Carey

Robbie D. Poteet

Alec Watts 

Christina M. Webb