Students slip despite college efforts
Kat Timpf
Issue date: 3/12/09 Section: News
The evening of Sunday, Feb. 8, sophomore Christie Powers slipped on the ice on the path behind Galloway Residence. Her injuries kept her out of classes for two weeks.
"I had a very large backpack full of books for a research paper, and I slipped so fast and I fell so hard," Powers said. "Because I had such a large backpack, it kept me from hitting my head… my head flew backwards so I gave myself severe whiplash… All my muscles pulled around my backpack and I pulled myself up and pulled all the muscles another direction."
Though most of the ice has melted lately, Vice President of Administration Rich Péwé said the Hillsdale College maintenance team has done an excellent job all winter of keeping the sidewalks and parking lots clear for its small size of six or seven members.
To clear college parking lots, Péwé said maintenance uses "V-Plows" to push snow wherever possible. On college sidewalks, he said they use brushes, blades and salt. He said maintenance even works on Sundays to clear campus sidewalks, starting with "priority areas," in time for the next day's classes.
In some instances, however, he said sidewalks can become unmanageable - such as when snow falls Saturday evening, then gets trampled by "party traffic" and rained on before maintenance attends to it on Sunday. He said this most often occurs on the sidewalks near the fraternity houses.
"Sometimes it's too icy for the brush blade, even salt doesn't work if it gets to a certain temperature," Pewe said. "We don't have guys working 24/7."
The conditions leading to Powers' injuries seem to resemble those Péwé mentioned.
"It had been one of those days where it was thawing and freezing and it was frozen nice and smooth," Powers said.
Powers sprained her neck, shoulders, upper and lower back, and arms. Once these started to feel better, she noticed she had also sprained "all my wrists and all my ankles."
"I'm finding all of the other parts of my body that haven't been brave enough to talk to me yet," Powers said.
Powers missed class because of the side effects of her muscle relaxers, as well as her general physical condition.
"I could not physically sit in class and take notes because all my muscles were in agony," she said.
Powers said she has since returned to class, but still takes three ibuprofen and two Tylenol at every meal, and muscle relaxers every night. At the time of the interview, she said she was "about to go to Wal-Mart to get splints for all of my limbs."
"I had a very large backpack full of books for a research paper, and I slipped so fast and I fell so hard," Powers said. "Because I had such a large backpack, it kept me from hitting my head… my head flew backwards so I gave myself severe whiplash… All my muscles pulled around my backpack and I pulled myself up and pulled all the muscles another direction."
Though most of the ice has melted lately, Vice President of Administration Rich Péwé said the Hillsdale College maintenance team has done an excellent job all winter of keeping the sidewalks and parking lots clear for its small size of six or seven members.
To clear college parking lots, Péwé said maintenance uses "V-Plows" to push snow wherever possible. On college sidewalks, he said they use brushes, blades and salt. He said maintenance even works on Sundays to clear campus sidewalks, starting with "priority areas," in time for the next day's classes.
In some instances, however, he said sidewalks can become unmanageable - such as when snow falls Saturday evening, then gets trampled by "party traffic" and rained on before maintenance attends to it on Sunday. He said this most often occurs on the sidewalks near the fraternity houses.
"Sometimes it's too icy for the brush blade, even salt doesn't work if it gets to a certain temperature," Pewe said. "We don't have guys working 24/7."
The conditions leading to Powers' injuries seem to resemble those Péwé mentioned.
"It had been one of those days where it was thawing and freezing and it was frozen nice and smooth," Powers said.
Powers sprained her neck, shoulders, upper and lower back, and arms. Once these started to feel better, she noticed she had also sprained "all my wrists and all my ankles."
"I'm finding all of the other parts of my body that haven't been brave enough to talk to me yet," Powers said.
Powers missed class because of the side effects of her muscle relaxers, as well as her general physical condition.
"I could not physically sit in class and take notes because all my muscles were in agony," she said.
Powers said she has since returned to class, but still takes three ibuprofen and two Tylenol at every meal, and muscle relaxers every night. At the time of the interview, she said she was "about to go to Wal-Mart to get splints for all of my limbs."
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