Put your skates away — the ice rink isn’t coming just yet.
Although the Student Activities Board had scheduled to open an ice rink on the Quad this weekend, it has frozen its plans to fill the rink because of unexpectedly warm weather, delaying the opening until further notice.
“It’s so dependent on the weather,” said Assistant Director of Student Activities Ashlyn Landherr. “We were hoping to fill it Wednesday, but it went above freezing.”
Wednesday’s temperatures reached the mid-30s.
Junior Branden Bisher, SAB director of men’s health and residence life, said he hopes to have the rink open in the next week or two.
“The ideal situation for freezing an ice rink is to have the temperature stay consistently below zero for three straight days,” Bisher said.
If all goes according to plan, the fire department will fill the rink with water, which will freeze after about three days. The ice then has to be surfaced before people can skate on it.
The attempt comes after a two-year hiatus of building an ice rink on campus, formerly a tradition at Hillsdale College. Because of the hassle of building the rink and maintaining it, however, Landherr said SAB foregone the project.
Previous rinks were at Hayden Park. This year’s will be built on the Quad for the convenience of skaters, Bisher said.
“It’s accessible, visible, and easy to check out skates late at night,” Bisher said.
Around 20 pairs of ice skates will be available at the front desk of Grewcock Student Union, if the rink does open. Students will be able to borrow skates with their Hillsdale IDs.
A warming hut from Hayden Park will also be set up on the Quad, so that skaters can store phones or other breakable items.
