Campus remains open despite student petition with over 1k signatures

On the evening of Wednesday Jan. 30, a group of several Cabrini students created a petition on change.org to cancel classes on Thursday, Jan. 31. The weather for the day was predicted to have temperatures as low as four degrees and many Cabrini students, both commuters and residents alike, began questioning if the university would close. When students began seeing institutions in the area closing one after the other, many began impatiently checking their phones for updates.

“Honestly when we first made it, it was kind of a joke. We had a real reason, obviously, but we saw other schools doing it and we were like ‘why not.’ We were expecting it to get like 10 signatures but once it really started to blow up, my roommates and I were sitting in our living room like ‘oh my god this is actually doing something,'” Ashley Moore, a junior communications major and one of the creators of the petition, said.

This petition is truly an example of students experiencing the power and influence of social media. Within hours of its creation, the link had already spread like wildfire. From promotion on Instagram and Snapchat stories to links being sent in group chats, it didn’t take long for the number to grow and surpass its original goal of 100 signatures.

Sophomore English major Jason Coladonato received the link for the petition from a club group message.

“I didn’t think it was real at first. But I had gotten my hopes up really high that I would wake up and see an email but it never happened,” Coladonto said.

Campus Facilities determines whether or not to close campus based on weather conditions as well as the conditions of roadways and walkways. Dawn Barnett is the director of facilities at Cabrini University.

“I was not made aware of the petition. Of course we always welcome student input but the decision will always be based on the safety of the campus community… The deep freeze is not predicted to go on for days but we will continue to monitor the extended weather forecast,” Barnett said.

Those who signed were also given the option to leave comments and give their reason for signing. Many who responded did so in a satirical tone, writing things such as “Mother Cabrini would want us to have off” and “I don’t want to die in the cold, I want to Live with Purpose.” Students taking screenshots and reposting the humorous comments to their social media was a major factor in the petition going as viral as it did.

“I had the link sent to me but I never signed it,” senior biology major Danielle Ayer said. “I started watching a video and completely forgot about it. But I didn’t think it would really work anyway. We’ve closed for snow but in my time we’ve never closed because of the temperature.”

Senior psychology major Samantha Torres said, “I signed it and sent it around to my friends.” However when asked if she believed it would work, Torres responded, “No.”