Alumni News

Working in a Winter Wonderland

COLIN SULLIVAN ’11

Winter snow brings a calm to campus, dampening the city noise outside the Gates. But the calm masks a flurry of behind-the-scenes activity: Columbia Facilities is on the case, and has been since long before the first flake fell.

Preparations for winter storms begin in late summer, according to Facilities’ blog, when “[i]nventories of the previous winter’s snow removal equipment is used to estimate how many plow trucks, snow blowers, Bobcat skid-steer loaders, ice breakers, and shovels will need to be tested and delivered to each of the University residential buildings in which they are stored for the upcoming season. De-icing materials are also kept at the ready, and contingency plans are made in the event of equipment failure or if extra snow removal is needed.”