Sophomore Marie Wathen had been on campus for 24 hours when she broke her leg.
“I was walking back from Benzing, turned onto the Olds walkway, and slipped,” Wathen said. “I knew it was broken immediately.”
Despite a spiral break to both her tibia and fibula, Wathen maintained the presence of mind to call her friend, sophomore Christina Lambert, who drove her to the Hillsdale Community Health Center, where she immediately entered the emergency room.
The break confined Wathen to a wheelchair when up the hill, although she can move through Olds on crutches. In addition to friends who wheel her around campus, campus security drives her up the hill, and warns other students of problem areas, according to Security Director Bill Whorley.
Wathen is not the only one waylaid by ice around campus. Last year, sophomore Allyn Morrison broke her left ankle, requiring surgery to insert a metal plate. And just two days before Wathen’s spill, junior Luke Hickman fell twice on a run around campus: first, on the driveway of his off-campus home on Oak Street, from which he “might still have scars, or blood”; and again on Montgomery Street, near Oak Grove Cemetery.
Even so, the college maintenance staff tries to keep students safe from severe slippage, according to groundskeeper and equipment manager Rich Alvarez. When his fellow workers expect snow or ice, they wake up as early as 3 a.m. to deploy the college’s four plowed pick-up trucks (and others with salt bags), its sidewalk-salters, brushing steiners, and toolcats to clear as much snow as possible.
“Every guy has a route to clear, and judges his start time depending on it,” Alvarez said. “If he gets done early, he’s responsible for helping the other guys.”
Alvarez also said that extreme conditions can complicate the job.
“Since salt doesn’t work in certain temperatures, we use potassium chloride. But often, when it’s really cold, like last week and this whole winter so far, nothing works,” he said. “I remember once, 11 to 12 years ago, we had a good ice storm in April. We’ll keep the snowplows on until we know we can’t expect snow anymore. We take a lot of pride in our work, and try to keep everyone safe.”
Hickman, for his part, is satisfied with the work of the maintenance crew, and directs his anger at others.
“I don’t blame the school. But I do get irritated at people who don’t shovel their driveways,” he said. “Come on, lazy people.”
Wathen still feels pain, and remains on medication, but finds herself most surprised by how kind the school community has been to her.
“There are more people than I can count, more people than I can even mention. Hillsdale is really such a family,” she said. “So many people have stepped up to the plate and asked if they can help in any way.”