Another Ahead, Undergrads Enjoy Their Snow Day

In a second day off from classes in two weeks, many undergraduates trudged knee-deep through fresh layers of snow while others, unfazed by cancellations that were formerly a rare occurrence, stayed inside and finished coursework. Late Monday evening, many students also celebrated as the Faculty of Arts and Sciences announced the cancellation of Tuesday classes.

On Sunday, many University schools, including the FAS, the Law School, and the Kennedy School of Government, canceled Monday classes as Boston braced for an expected snowfall almost two feet, adding to the already significant precipitation winter storm “Juno” previously dumped on Cambridge.

Baker Library, a prominent building at Harvard Business School, is flanked by snow on Feb. 9. By Y. Kit Wu

Some critical staff worked throughout Sunday night, as they did in previous weeks, to clear the snow.

Huberto Tejada, a crew chief for a custodial subdivision of campus services, said he stayed the night in Adams House, sleeping for a few hours at a time, and then returned back outside to clear the entrances.

“You get used to it,” Tejada said of the weather.

Debbie N. A. Onuoha ’15 seized a shovel as she helped remove new snow from the grounds of Quincy House. The clanging sound of students and staff wielding shovels reverberated throughout the campus Monday afternoon.

For many students, the additional accumulation also provided a unique opportunity to climb steep mounds of snow that snow removal vehicles had piled up in specific areas.

William H. Bloxham ’17 and other members of the Mountaineering Club, for instance, climbed long bands of snow near the Malkin Athletic Center and practiced avalanche search and rescue drills, implanting grey pickets at the top of the frozen peak.

Elsewhere, undergraduates trekked through mostly empty roads, tossed around rugby balls, and tackled one another into the freshly filled-in expanses of trodden snow.

“The snow is really, really fluffy, so it’s great to fall into,” said Ethan Samet-Marram ’15, carrying a beige tray from a location he would not specify.

In the Yard, white snow mostly covered the thighs and ankles of the John Harvard statue, but visitors wiped clean its left golden shoe and some continued to snap photographs undeterred.

Other undergraduates, likewise, returned to the normality of the week, watching television, beginning homework or briefly venturing outside to shovel sidewalks and walkways.

“I’m gonna catch up on work—that’s it,” Catherine R. Myong ’18 said of her plans in the early afternoon.

Dean of Student Life Stephen Lassonde sent an email Monday evening announcing the closure of FAS classes on Tuesday, marking the second instance this semester that scheduled courses for Tuesday will not convene.

—Staff writer Noah J. Delwiche can be reached at noah.delwiche@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @ndelwiche.