Last semester, while walking to my Chemistry of Materials I final, icy conditions caused me to fall down the stairs leading to freshman hill. The final was painful enough; sitting for three hours in wet pants only amplified my distress. Although it was early in the morning, I was among several hundred freshmen making their way over this popular thoroughfare to the 8 am final. It is fair to expect that at least some de-icing measures would have taken place.

Learning my lesson last semester, I’ve managed to avoid those dreaded stairs. While walking to a class lecture last Wednesday morning, I saw a girl fall on a patch of ice hidden at the bottom of the same staircase. The girl laughed and was able to continue her walk. While returning to my dorm an hour later, a boy who I saw fall did not fare as well. At the bottom of the staircase, he slipped on the same hidden patch of ice and his head forcefully slammed into the bottom step. Blood marked where his face hit the stairs.

Infuriated that such a dangerous location could have been over–looked, I returned to my room and immediately called the office responsible for snow removal. I left the best description of what I saw on their answering machine and set out to warn others of the dangerous location. Throughout the morning and early afternoon, I heard of at least a dozen other students who fell at the same place. Salt was sprinkled by late afternoon, but it was still too late for the morning victims.

Five hours after Saturday’s snow had begun, nothing had been done on freshman hill or at the Union. Dangerous conditions prevailed while I carefully made the exploration. By Sunday morning, walkways had been plowed, but no de-icers prevented slipping.