It’s the third week of classes, and Buffalo State students have been greeted back to school by nothing but snow.

We understand that resources are limited and there is only so much our campus administration can do when it comes to keeping campus snow-free.

When Niagara University was faced with last week’s harsh weather, the school took an approach that we believe Buffalo State could learn from. According to NU’s Associate Director of Public Relations Michael J. Freedman, a notice was sent to students and faculty in the early morning announcing that classes would be canceled until noon. A decision about whether or not the campus would remain open would be made as the hours progressed. Students and faculty were advised to keep an eye out for updates. Hours before noon struck, students received another message saying that classes would be canceled for the day.

Buffalo State should take a similar approach. When Director of Campus Services Terry Harding was asked about the rough conditions around campus, he explained that conditions can be hard to keep up on when snowstorms begin before classes do. If Buffalo State took proactive measures like Niagara University, they could make sure most snow removal was underway before students arrived to campus.

In addition to the inconvenient methods of communicating cancelations, the snow-removal throughout the entirety of campus has been extremely poor. Snowed-in cars and enormous snow piles are the norm at nearly every Buffalo State parking lot. The already-inefficient amount of parking locations is made worse by the fact that snow piles cover many of the campus parking locations.

Cars raced around parking lots Tuesday morning, settling for any open spot they could. Students were ticketed by campus police for parking perpendicular to parking spots, in handicap areas and of course, in staff lots (probably thought they’d never catch you, huh?).

Not only were the conditions on Monday terrible, it translated into the rest of the week. Lots still weren’t fully cleared later in the week, a Record staffer even got stuck in a parking lot on Thursday.

Allowing instructors to follow through with the class schedule at their discretion makes for unproductive, under-attended classes and too much campus traffic for efficient snow removal.