Cold Temps Freeze Snow Statue Building

Even with school closed the last two days, students at Michigan Tech are feeling the strain of crunch time.  Usually that feeling is reserved for end-of-semester exams, however with the current effects of the polar vortex, the University has ordered that all snow statue building come to a stop until further notice, meaning many will be scrambling to complete their builds in time for statue judging.

With statue judging set to take place in less than a week from now, many students across campus are anxiously awaiting permission to go outside and play in the snow.

“Statue building has been halted, so no one is allowed to work on statues right now, which makes sense because it’s really dangerous. Conditions, with wind chill, are less than negative 18 degrees,” said Delta Phi Epsilon Carnival Chair Person Hannah Badger, who is among many students who are hoping complete their team efforts, despite the mandatory requirement to take a few days off.

Badger said, “Unfortunately I think it will affect a lot of the statues this year. Because it’s so late and a lot of the detail happens later, and if you haven’t finished your forms or bulking yet it’s going to be really hard to focus on detail just because there’s not much time left. I feel like things might be affected but I’m hoping for the best.”

Hannah’s Sorority got an early start this year, which give’s them a little comfort, but it all comes down to the final push of All-Nighter which takes place next Wednesday.  “Our focus right now, I think we’re more fortunate because we’ve already finished our forms and bulking pretty early so we’ve already started on detail, so it hasn’t affected us as much, and we will have statue hours coming up through the weekend so that we can continue to work on it, but bottom line, it is so cold, so sometimes it’s really hard to get motivated to go out,” said Badger.

States are not the only activity affected by the Polar Vortex.  Badger said, “As far as Winter Carnival, a lot of special events have been postponed too. A lot of those special events are getting pushed into this weekend and next week so it’s starting to get a little hectic with everything all piling on to each other.”

Badger said the students are keeping busy by using the time off to their advantage.  “We’re doing a lot of homework, so it’s kind of nice to get ready for this Winter Carnival week coming up by being able to work ahead so that we’ll be able to work on our statue next week and not be juggling all this extra stuff,” she said.

During All-Nighter, the Sorority will be completing their statue build while simultaneously taking turns teeter tottering to raise money for cystic fibrosis.  “We all have a few hours that we need to be on the teeter totter for. We have rules as far as you shouldn’t be on the teeter totter for two hours straight. That is way too cold for by the end,” said Badger.