The
campuses of the University of Rhode Island, especially in Kingston, took a bit
of a pounding from a serious nor’ easterner (named Nemo, of all things) this past weekend. Big Chill, our annual gala fundraiser
for scholarships was postponed until March, classes were canceled (along with
many other events), and our emergency management systems and procedures
experienced a severe test. We
passed. As I sit in my office late on Sunday afternoon, power has been restored
to most of the campus and our crews are still hard at working plowing,
snowplowing, shoveling, cleaning up, and providing essential services. All of us in the URI community owe them
a lot of thanks. They got very little sleep for 48 hours and many worked in severe
conditions to repair power systems, keep the roads passable, and take care of
our students. I cannot say that
our management of all this was perfect, and we will thoroughly assess what went
well and where our efforts were less than satisfactory. We will learn from this
and improve. For those who
contacted us to share your concerns and frustrations, I thank you for your
comments – your input will help us get better.
There were some memorable moments that were very
positive, however. After 24 hours
without power ourselves, we were delighted to welcome, shortly after our power
was restored, five refugees from Xi Omega to our house on campus when several
of our fraternities and sororities needed to evacuate their buildings owing to
power outages.
Here
they are, along with our niece Emily, who is a pharmacy student at URI.
And
here is a picture of the Upper College Road branch of Xi Omega’s “common” room.
All
I can say is that when everything gets back to (at least close to) normal on
Monday or Tuesday, Lynn and I (and Rhody and Lily) will miss them.
Thanks again to all those who make the University of Rhode Island a special community: our students, our dedicated staff, and our faculty. Let's hope all this snow melts expeditiously!
