After 6:00 p.m. Wednesday evening, Pace alerted its students of a gas shut down, prompting all resident halls, the cafeteria, and most of the Pleasantville campus to close down and be evacuated.
They offered displaced students the following options: go home, grab a cot in Willcox Gym, or bunk with a friend on the Briarcliff campus.
This is all well and good. Students have suffered through evacuations before. But in all honesty, the fact that classes were conducted as usual, the day after so many residents were displaced, is ridiculous.
It seems that Pace is letting the prior cancelations of this semester cloud its judgment on the current predicament.
Let’s start with the evacuations of North, Martin, and the Townhouses. The residents of these buildings now have to relocate to one of the options above. They will need to pack clothing, books, and anything else they will need for the next few days, as the evacuation is in effect through Friday, according to the e-mail.
While this is not necessarily a huge problem, what about the issues of bathing, brushing your teeth, and going to the bathroom?
For the people that must go to Willcox, for example, where will they shower? They can’t go to Goldstein Fitness, because that is shut down, and who knows the last time the locker room in Willcox was used.
If a significant number of people have to resort to this option, Willcox might become a madhouse.
As for Briarcliff, Pace has decided that the cafeteria located there will effectively be the primary cafeteria for the time being. Because of this, Briarcliff cafeteria is going to be awfully packed, and backed up.
By not cancelling classes, Pace has disregarded what is best for students, and has created an environment, at least for the time being, that is not conducive for learning. And that is very unfortunate.