New School students said transit delays and snow-covered sidewalks made for a difficult, long, and injury-prone return to school on Tuesday, Feb. 24. Some students said the difficulties caused them to be late to class or miss it entirely.  

While New York City on Feb. 24 was somewhat back to normal — public schools were open, some sidewalks were cleared, and some public transit running — the commute to campus was challenging, according to students.

Holden Walsh, a first-year Strategic Design and Management major at Parsons School of Design, said that the 20-minute walk from Stuyvesant Park Residence to campus was at some points “too much.” 

“I think we should have gotten another day,” Walsh said. “The sludge is the worst part. I have boots for snow, but if I didn’t I wouldn’t have come to class.” 

On Monday, Feb. 23, the university’s campus was closed and all classes and activities were canceled amid Winter Storm Hernando.

At 1 p.m. on Monday, the National Weather Service measured 19.7 inches of snow in Central Park. The blizzard was the city’s first since 2017 and produced heavy snow, high winds, and whiteouts.

At 3:46 p.m on Monday, Feb. 23, students, faculty, and staff received a New School alert that said TNS would reopen campus for regular hours the next day. 

Emma Schmidt, a first-year Parsons fashion student, said she slipped and fell the morning of Feb. 24 while walking to class. 

“I lost so much aura … And then I was late and I had to run in the ice,” Schmidt said.  “I was sweating through my sweatshirt because I was running in the ice, and it was actually the most evil experience in my entire life.”

At  2:37 a.m. on Feb. 24, the New York branch of the National Weather Service issued a warning stating that, until 10:00 a.m., “areas of black ice [were] possible … particularly on any untreated surfaces.” 

​Schmidt lives on campus at Loeb Hall, which is about a 10-minute walk from the University Center. 

“I’ve never seen snow ever in my entire life,” Schmidt, originally from Arizona, said. 

Florence Lynn, a first-year communication design major at Parsons, also fell in the snow on the way to class.

“It’s snowy everywhere, there’s ice, I ate shit — I have a bruise on my arm,” Lynn said. 

Students who live off campus and have to commute said they also faced consequences beyond slipping: being late to class or missing entire classes. The MTA suspended multiple train services while other trains faced delays, and articulated buses were removed from service until Feb. 25.

Lynn lives off campus in South Brooklyn, and their subway commute is about an hour. On Feb. 24, their commute was 20 minutes longer due to train delays, and Lynn ended up being half an hour late to class.

“That was the worst commute of my life,” Lynn said. 

​Kadar Prescod, a second-year jazz student at the College of Performing Arts, said he missed his class and that classes should have been canceled or only held in person if they were in the afternoon. Prescod also said he could barely get to his bus stop due to the snow. 

“I just couldn’t get past the snow,” Prescod said. “On my block, we shovel, but if you try and get to the bus stop [there’s] all the snow on the street … you’re not gonna be able to get to the bus.”

Once Prescod was able to get to the stop, he ran into another challenge.

“All the buses were packed because everything’s moving slower,” Prescod said.  “So I missed like two, three buses.” 

NYC public schools also reopened on Feb. 24, to the anger of many parents.

Over 172,000 people signed a petition that urged the New York City Department of Education and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to move the in-person school day to remote learning. The petition cited past “overwhelmed” public transit and “safety concerns.”

​According to preliminary attendance numbers, NYC Public Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels said only 63% of students were able to attend school on Feb. 24. 

For some New School students, the frustration about coming to class reflected larger issues.

“I was annoyed that I had to come in today … I thought we wouldn’t have to,” Katherine Vanoff, a first-year undecided major at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, said. “I thought that [administrators] would understand.”