Editor:

I am writing in response to Andrew Kirk’s article (“Campus on the rocks,” Dec. 5) about hazardous walkways. The reporting was quite accurate, as far as it went. It did detail the extent to which the grounds crew is understaffed.

From a personal standpoint, I was given a slightly different slant on the situation. I arrived on campus the morning in question a little before 6 a.m. and was greeted by grounds personnel stopping and individually warning people about the condition of the walks and apologizing for the lack of de-icer in some areas. That morning, I had occasion to be out and about on campus and was consistently and politely warned several times by grounds staff for the next couple hours. They had been at work since 4:30 a.m.

Sue Pope is correct that the grounds crew can’t be everywhere at once, but from my perspective, it was doing a pretty convincing job of trying to do so. My thanks to a crew that rarely gets much thanks.

Jay Hansen

Staff