Common sense
The Voices section in Central Michigan Life gives us a chance to voice our opinion on issues that affect CMU's students, staff and faculty.
And while it sometimes seems our voice goes unheard, it is comforting to know what we write can be taken seriously.
Grant Skomski, assistant director of Residence Life, said in Monday's CM Life that the East Area pond will not be used as an ice skating surface this winter.
Skomski said the decision stemmed in part from a Nov. 29 CM Life editorial, in which we questioned the ice freezing and maintenance process, as well as how surveillance of the pond would be conducted to avoid any potential accidents in which students might fall into the water.
Residence Life officials essentially had three options at that point, none of them too appealing.
The first would be to leave things as-is and hope everything worked itself out. Hopefully luck would be on their side and no accidents would occur. But the liability factor is so extreme in this case that there's no way leaving the pond should have been considered. If an accident had occurred, the lawsuits most likely would have been overwhelming.
The second option would keep the pond open for skating, but it would mean hiring a lifeguard or two, and/or installing a 24-hour surveillance camera and TV. While this would please the students who want to skate, where would the money come from? The university would need to pay the $6.95 per hour minimum wage the lifeguard(s) would have to make, and maybe a hefty price for the electronic equipment as well. With tuition on the rise, it wouldn't make sense to spend university dollars to let some kids ice skate.
The third option, the one CMU has taken, is not to allow students to skate on the pond. It might not be what officials wanted, but it does send a message the university is looking out for the well-being of its students.
Now it's up to the students to be mature about the decision.
Skomski said footprints are visible on the ice surface, even though students were told weeks ago the ice was off-limits.
On top of that, Skomski said students are being disrespectful, throwing rocks into the pond to test the ice's durability.
You don't need to go to college to know that walking on ice is dangerous. And it's just plain immature to throw rocks.
We're not in high school anymore.
The university has done you a favor by shutting the pond down.
So be sensible and respect the decision.
