Throughout last week, word began to spread that Knox County was set to receive a massive snowstorm over the weekend, with anywhere from six to 18 inches of snow expected to fall. Over the course of Sunday and Monday, Gambier received an estimated total of around 20 inches of snow.

On Friday, the Kenyon community received an email detailing the expected impacts of the upcoming snowstorm. Students and faculty were told that unless there was a Level 3 snow emergency, the campus would continue to operate under normal circumstances.

At 10:22 a.m. on Sunday, Knox County officially issued a Level 3 snow emergency. This designation meant that all roadways were closed to non-emergency vehicles due to extremely dangerous conditions such as heavy snow, ice and wind. It also meant that all on-campus activities were canceled for the day, and many campus locations, including the bookstore, the mailroom and the Lowry Center, were closed. The crisis was exacerbated by the recently announced salt shortage, with available road salt prioritized for inclines and essential pathways. However, the Village Market and Peirce Hall remained open despite limited staffing. 

“I left an hour and a half before I needed to be here to make sure that I could be here that way you guys could have something to eat,” one Peirce employee, Wyatt Carnes, said in an interview with the Collegian. “Because I know that if everywhere else is shut down, Peirce Hall is the only way you guys eat. It’s not okay to let you guys go hungry.” Carnes was one of three Peirce employees who braved the snowy roads on Sunday to make it in time for his morning shift. 

At 9:40 p.m. on Sunday, students received another email outlining what the conditions meant for Monday’s schedule. All student activities, including athletics, were canceled. Administrative offices were closed, and only essential personnel were told to report to campus. All in-person classes before 1:10 p.m. were canceled. While many classes that meet three times a week were canceled, the timing was intentionally designed to avoid pre-emptively canceling three hour seminars that only meet once a week in the afternoon and evening. Administrators planned to reassess conditions around 11 a.m. However, at 8:24 a.m. on Monday, Knox County downgraded from a Level 3 snow emergency to a Level 2 snow emergency. This allowed faculty to hold in-person classes in the afternoon if they chose, and several campus locations reopened, including the bookstore, which remained open with limited hours.

The cancellation of many classes and the unplowed snow created the perfect setting for students to enjoy the second snow day of the academic year. Igloos, snowball fights and sledding were all common sights for students willing to brave the freezing weather. “My classes got canceled, and my teachers felt that learning through Zoom was not going to be beneficial, but one class did assign a new project due by noon that day,” Holly Byun ’28 said in an interview with the Collegian. “Other than that, I spent the day resetting and sledding down the [Lowry Center] hill with Liza [Bray ’28] and Brandon [Ackermann ’28].” Nina Nicoletti ’28 spent the day bonding with her housemates. “We were able to have a perfect snow day,” she said in a message to the Collegian. “We trudged through the snow for a roommate breakfast, had a little fight in the snow, made soup and hot chocolate, watched a movie and went sledding.”

Following the snowstorm, Knox County is under an extreme cold warning, with dangerously cold wind chills of -20 to -25 degrees.