By KYLE PRATT
Staff Writer
Heavy rain and flooding made travelling to Saint Rose difficult for some commuter students early last week. Many students driving to the college were met with low visibility, traffic and even flooded roads due to rainstorms that impacted the area last Wednesday.
Saint Rose senior Kimberly Burgess was in her car for an extra hour on her drive from Saratoga, which usually takes about 45 minutes.
“I left home at 7:46 a.m. and got in to the campus parking lot at 9:25 a.m.,” said Burgess, adding that she was half an hour late for her nine o’clock class.
Burgess’ usual route to Saint Rose is to travel down the Northway and turn on to Western Avenue, which unbeknownst to her, was closed due to flooding.
Western was shut down after water started to flow over it at the area between Fuller and Schoolhouse roads at about 7:40 a.m., according to Deputy Chief Curt Cox of Guilderland Police Department.
While driving southbound on the Northway, Burgess had no idea Western was closed.
“I heard on the radio Central was closed,” said Burgess, “but not a thing about Western.”
There was no sign warning drivers on the Northway about the closure of Western Avenue, which is where the major highway ends and connects to city streets. However, there was a sign on the Northway notifying drivers of an accident on the exit ramp leading to Interstate 90, another major highway in the area.
Not being aware of the closure was aggravating to Burgess.
“It was very frustrating how little communication was utilized,” she said.
Other commuter students were also affected by the weather last week.
Vanessa Couse, a sophomore, commutes from Middle Grove, which is just west of Saratoga. Her commute, which usually takes just over an hour, was “about 2 hours with traffic.”
Students were not the only members of the Saint Rose community affected by the weather.
Communications professor Mary Alice Molgard also had a lengthened commute. Her drive, which is 35 to 40 minutes on a regular day, lasted almost one hour and 30 minutes on Wednesday. Molgard took a different route than usual to Saint Rose from where she lives in Berne, which is about 22 miles from the school, a choice she called “dangerous.” Molgard says she was met with a “terrible bottleneck” on Western Avenue near the end of the Northway, just before the road was closed.
By starting her commute to campus 45 minutes early, Molgard was able to arrive at Saint Rose in time for her 9 a.m. class, where four students were absent. It is unclear whether the absences were due to the weather. One of the late students to Molgard’s class was Burgess.
“She was very understanding,” said Burgess, “which I greatly appreciated.”
Many professors, Burgess notes, are not so lenient.
“Some professors can be sticklers for tardiness and as a commuter student that’s unnerving,” said Burgess. “I can’t exactly control the traffic and when I’m stuck I don’t want to have to worry if it’s going to be held against me.”
Molgards lateness policy usually applies to those who are chronically late.
“I am tolerant of tardiness when there is a legitimate reason for it,” Molgard said, “and weather delays are certainly legitimate.”
