After only half a week of classes at Vassar College, it felt as though the campus was launched back into the quiet of winter break when it received nearly 18 inches of snow. There had only been three short days of class, and students were just settling back in after a month-long winter recess. There was a lethargic energy to the slow revival of the academic schedule. Then, overnight, Vassar woke up to a campus painted white.
Students marched head down with their hands in their pockets to Gordon Commons, sliding on the soft covering that accumulated too quickly to be plowed. As you followed the path to Gordon Commons, an already enormous snow fort grew bigger on Noyes Circle. It would soon develop even more igloo caverns compartments than it had originated with, becoming a campus spectacle. Common areas became the new designated study spot for students while the library was closed. Amy Melchior ’29 spent some of her day in the Rose Parlor in Main Building. She shared, “I spent my time lounging in the Rose Parlor with my friends […] watching the snow fall from the windows. We took a nice walk around Skinner Hall and listened to Joni Mitchell. It was great getting to experience the most intense snowstorm I’ve ever seen in my first year at Vassar. It’s a great way to start the semester.” While the snow was encouraging a more studious inclination to stay inside, it served in tandem as a break from what can be a stressful return to the school routine.
Melchior was not the only student to intersperse her day of studying with a venture outside. Maddie Nussbaum ’29 also spent the bulk of her day inside, marveling at the novel amounts of snow falling outside, for whom this much snow was not a common occurrence: “I spent a lot of time in the Rose Parlor with my friends, doing work and watching the snow come down. And I bundled up and walked around, because I’ve never really seen snow like this in DC.”
Beyond the dormitories, the Residential Quad stood silent with very few pedestrians braving its paths. Vassar was totally immersed in a quiet snow globe of life, except for one spot: Sunset Hill. Sunset Hill was teeming with life as the day continued and students flocked to the opening right along the edge of a frozen Sunset Lake. Bundled in winter gear, students carried cardboard boxes they had taken apart, newly purchased sleds and even a table to bury in snow, creating a jump. As the snow accumulated, so did the sledders at the hill. At the top, small groups huddled together to maintain warmth as they pushed their friends down tracks of packed down snow. Sledders raced down the hill each in their own variation of the tradition—some snowboarded, others went down in twos, some went stomach first. At the bottom, the sleds slowly came to a stop at the completely covered frozen lake. Kayla Mcgovern ’29 watched from the bottom as people slid to a stop at the edge of the lake. “From the hill I could see people flying down, going over jumps and stuff. It was really fun,” she noted. Even as the sky darkened, the stream of sleds continued, but the snow did not cease even as the hill began to empty.
The snow day at Vassar was long and, for most of us, was a quiet one. The snow got rid of the usual sound of the occasional cars, it softened footsteps and beckoned students into the warmth of the buildings, but it was also a joyous reunion of students with a school they had left for a month. Almost in synchrony with the return of the students was the snow that made being away from home easier and sparked excitement for a new semester.