Students, staff and faculty at Smith College faced conditions navigating campus throughout Feb. 2025 as a series of winter storms and freezing temperatures left layers of ice coating walkways, roads and stairs. The extreme cold, paired with poor drainage and persistent cycles of thawing and freezing made clearing the ice a lengthy and difficult process, leading to numerous class cancellations, delays, altered building hours and parking bans.
“It was extremely difficult to get around campus,” said Maddie Milla ’27, sharing frustrations in managing icy pathways with chronic pain. “I already have to deal with pain that comes and goes according to the weather, so having to alter the way I walk to make sure I don’t slip and fall was really annoying.”
Slippery conditions created hazards for able-bodied students, and especially for those struggling with mobility issues. “I have a friend who was struggling to navigate the campus with crutches. It literally took us almost 25 minutes to get from the quad to the CC [Campus Center],” Milla added.
Beyond individual struggles, the hazardous conditions also impacted class schedules. Classes were cancelled on Thursday, Feb. 6 and were delayed until 10 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 13 and Monday, Feb. 17. Olivia Voltaggio ’28 said, “[The class cancellations] bothered the professor as well because then we were two weeks behind the curriculum.”
However, Della Baer ’28 noted her frustrations with classes being delayed instead of cancelled, saying, “They delayed classes but I think they should’ve cancelled them because [walking around campus] was really treacherous.”
Campus officials acknowledged the difficulties and made efforts to mitigate the conditions. “This last one was the perfect storm,” said John LaBrie, Grounds Foreman. He said that Northampton drainage systems were a major contributor to the persistence of the ice. “When the rain started, it had no place to go, so it kind of meandered down into our [walkways]. Then we have banks on both sides with no exit for the water, and then with that freeze that night, it really creates a problem.”
According to LaBrie, February’s winter events have been part of a larger trend of mixed weather, causing icy conditions that are harder to clear. “It’s been the last two or three years,” he said. “We no longer get those big, heavy snowstorms anymore. It’s always the mix and the sleet and the freezing rain and that kind of thing. And that presents a lot of problems.”
The Facilities team worked long hours attempting to clear campus which included, “breaking [the ice] up by hand,” according to LaBrie. The team also faced challenges due to ongoing campus construction projects. “We have a lot of nooks and crannies and sidewalks and amphitheaters […] we have to watch out for student traffic, all the construction, fences made it extraordinarily hard for us. College lane was closed, so we couldn’t just plow the snow into their construction zone,” said LaBrie.
Despite their frustrations with hazardous conditions, students recognized the effort of the Facilities team. “I felt frustrated until I saw the workers making an effort to break the ice,” Milla said. “They were using hammers or sledge hammers to break the ice and then clean it up, so I knew there was an effort being made and it eased the frustration. It’s hard to clean that up, and that’s not going to get done in a short period of time.”
For those who struggle to navigate icy walkways, Director of Facilities Operations Jen Graveline encourages students to reach out for help. “If there is a student with mobility issues or who may be in a wheelchair or have crutches or something that’s really unsafe for them to navigate, they definitely should call and get a ride through campus safety,” says Graveline.
As the lingering ice on campus continues to melt, some students hope for better preparation in the future. Students said that they wanted to see more proactive ice management in order to prevent future disruptions to daily life.
“Salt the streets,” said Voltaggio. “Every time it’s going to snow, every time it’s going to hail, every time it’s going to rain, salt the streets.”
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Editor’s note: Della Baer ’28, who is quoted in this article, is a features writer for the Sophian. Baer was not involved in the production of this article.
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