Snow days, rewritten for our screens

When it snows at Lehigh, student life slows down in a way it usually doesn’t. The usual rush across campus fades as students pause to take in the quiet beauty of snow-covered walkways and buildings. 

For a brief moment — as snow falls and weather alerts roll in — it almost feels like a classic snow day.

Then the email arrives: Classes will be held virtually.

Disappointment sets in as students open their laptops and log on from their bedrooms. Zoom classes are difficult to focus on, easy to tune out and rarely anyone’s preferred way to learn. 

On paper, virtual classes make sense. Technology allows coursework to continue uninterrupted, even doing bad weather. But when every snow day turns into a regular workday, something meaningful is lost. 

Snow days once offered a true break from routine. There were no early alarms, no screens and no expectations beyond staying warm and finding something enjoyable to do. Now, snow days mean rolling out of bed, opening Zoom and staring groggily into a camera while snow falls just outside the window.

Snow days aren’t just about missing class. They’re about shared downtime — rare moments when everyone is equally excused from being productive.

That sense of community is harder to find when students are isolated behind individual screens. It’s impossible to spend time with friends while sitting on a Zoom call, and difficult to  enjoy the snow while half-listening to a lecture. Virtual instruction may serve as a substitute when necessary, but it doesn’t replace the experience of a true day off simply because it snowed. 

Ten years ago, virtual learning wasn’t an option. Snow days still existed. Campus functioned, learning continued, and life went on.

For students shaped by COVID, virtual learning isn’t a neutral convenience. Years of online classes blurred the boundaries between home, school, work and rest, leaving many students burned out and disengaged. 

Returning to Zoom — even briefly — can revive that fatigue, making virtual snow days feel less like a solution and more like an extension of a cycle many students are still recovering from.

It’s clear students don’t want to be behind a screen when snow blankets campus. During recent snowfalls, students were sledding down East Fifth Street, building snowmen and participating in winter sport activities on the South Mountain, joy visible across campus. 

These moments might seem small, but they matter. 

College is more than lectures and assignments. It’s about learning how to exist alongside other  people. Snow days break down routine barriers and create space to bond, laugh and relax in ways the typical work week rarely allows. 

Even on days labeled as “off,” expectations often follow students  home. There’s always something due, something to watch or something to respond to. The line between work and rest continues to shrink, making genuine downtown increasingly rare. 

This isn’t a call to abandon responsibility or ignore academics. It’s a reminder that rest has value too. If Lehigh truly wants to support student wellness and community, allowing the occasional real snow day wouldn’t hurt.

Snow won’t derail the semester or harm an education. Instead, it would  offer students a chance  to slow down, connect in person and enjoy being students — not participants in a never-ending Zoom call.

Some things are just worth logging offline for.