Only a couple of weeks ago, we had our first dusting of snow for the year. The entire campus became covered in a thick blanket of white.

The worst part of winter is the snow never gets properly cleaned up. It stays on the roads, sidewalks and parking lots until spring. That is not okay.

I am from the Twin Cities so I’m used to snowy winters. I know how to drive in the snow and walk on the ice without slipping constantly, but Grand Forks is something else. The whole city just doesn’t know how to plow effectively. I know I’m not alone in this because I’ve talked to many people about this common annoyance.

This city and university don’t seem to do anything about the massive amounts of snow that plop down onto our little community. The snow blocks up the whole city and causes a ruckus for months on end.

It’s only been a week of this winter wonderland, and I have already seen five wipeouts. I’m not going to lie, it’s a lot of fun seeing someone dance around as they’re about to fall on to the ice, desperately trying to get some sort of grip on the slippery ground to no avail.

It’s quite funny to watch, but also really sad because I know the pain. I’ve been there. Not only is one’s bum hurt, but also an individual’s pride is destroyed. No one can make a graceful recovery after that. And if you do know how to make smooth recoveries, let me know, because I will be making a bunch of awkward falls on the ice for the rest of this season.

The parking lots also become such a mess when the school refuses to do an adequate job of plowing. Trying to park by Columbia Hall is difficult enough during the spring and fall, but once the snow hits, it’s so much harder. The lines are all covered up so people park in such a willy nilly fashion, it makes the amount of cars that are able to park in the lot about half as many as before the dreaded snow came. This is especially problematic for a parking lot that is already way too small.

The last thing I feel the need to mention is that no one in this state knows how to drive in snow. I’ll let it go for people who are from different parts of the country. For instance, I understand if someone from Arizona doesn’t know how to drive in the snow, but if you’re from anywhere around the Midwest, you should have learned by now how to drive in a blizzard without going four miles an hour.

Grand Forks has the worst winters already, with the piercing wind and the occasional highs of negative twenty. But the city could make it more bearable for its residents by actually plowing and clearing the streets and sidewalks so we aren’t slipping all over, making fools of ourselves and on occasion crashing into each other.

Jill Morton is a opinion writer for Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected]