Boy, was the tail end of last week a mess.

In case you’re reading this and don’t immediately know what I’m referring to in the title, I’ll give you a recap: last Wednesday, somewhere near 700 students were kicked out of their residence halls – Martin, North, and the Townhouses – on the Pleasantville campus because of a major gas leak.

After the leak was discovered—I’d say as early as Tuesday because of the Con Edison trucks parked outside of Martin Hall and Choate House— an emergency notification was sent out at to all residents living on Pleasantville at approximately 6:19 p.m. on Wednesday evening.

We were told to leave our dorms, which would be locked up by 10 p.m., and that we were welcome to stay on Briarcliff with any friends who would take us in, or in the very isolated and lonely Willcox gym, where cots would be set up for the next few days. The option of going home and commuting to class, however, was the most fervently suggested.

Doesn’t sound bad so far, right? Only it went downhill pretty fast after that. Now comes the point in which I state my grievances and how things could have been handled much better.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that this is clearly the semester that wasn’t meant to be.

While the higher ups of our school are surely scratching their heads (or pulling out their hair) over all of our cancellations thus far, it should’ve been a no-brainer to give undergrads Thursday off from class.

While many of us went to Briarcliff to stay with kind and hospitable buddies, the rest of us had to either go home, however far home may be, or sleep in Willcox gym.

For those who chose the latter option, going to class on Thursday obviously would have presented some difficulties. How far is home? How will you get back to school if you have no readily available means of transportation?

The obvious answer to this would have been to rough it in the Willcox gym and take care of your personal hygiene matters in the athletic showers. But simply put, that is gross, and uncomfortable.

The next problem involved the matter of food. While it was very nice to have been invited to a pizza party hosted by Chartwells on Briarcliff, as well as food deliveries to Miller Kiosk, the issue of the Flex Dollars debacle is still on hand.

In the initial email sent out to Pleasantville residents on Wednesday evening, we were told that additional Flex would be added to our accounts, followed by a list of eateries that took this form of currency. Rumors quickly circulated as to how much and where this money was coming from, however, all of us who utilized our cards in town to buy food quickly realized that Pace took our entire meal plan and transferred it over to our Flex accounts – without telling us.

The intentions were good surely, but full disclosure was not provided to the students. By Saturday morning most of our flex accounts had been emptied, as all of our money, including unused Flex for some of us, was transferred into our meal plan accounts.

Which brings me to my last and most important point: disclosure.

Simply put, we were not told in time, and we were not told enough. Many emails were sent, with loads of information, which was appreciated, nevertheless, problems still arose.

6:19 p.m. was not early enough to let us know that we had to be out in 3 hours. What of the students in class in the city? What of those who had to make arrangements to go home? If Con Edison was on campus days before, why were we not told earlier on Wednesday of our possible evacuation? Why did more professors find out of our temporary displacement from students rather than from the school itself?

Simply put, things could have been handled better. The effort and the thought were appreciated, but the execution was rocky.