“The school became family. It gave me roots, it gave me something to build on, it gave me purpose, and it straightened that path to where I wanted to go.”
Line server Dolores Rios serves a plate of breakfast to Texas State German language Freshman Osvaldo Barrientos, Monday, Feb. 22, 2021, at Commons Dining Hall. Douglas Smith
After going hours without electricity, water and heat, Texas State dorm residents were left on campus with scarce resources during the week of a historic February winter storm in the state, questioning what would happen next. Mentally it was just depressing a little, because you re just kind of, like, there s no entertainment, so your mind is just sitting there wondering, says Katelyn Gorings, a political science freshman, who lives in Blanco Hall.Â
While the storm, Feb. 14-19, impacted the electricity of some San Marcos residents early on, many residential dorms were able to maintain limited electricity with the help of back-up generators. However, the light and heat did not last long as dorm rooms eventually turned dark, cold and were left without internet.
Football players at Centre College in Kentucky shovel ice and snow off the field.
Record-breaking low temperatures and winter storms across the southern and central United States caused widespread power outages and forced dozens of colleges to close for at least several days.
The storms hit shortly after many colleges began what will likely be another challenging spring term. More and more institutions are transitioning to some in-person instruction amid the pandemic and welcomed more students to campus than they did in the fall. In some cases, the recent bad weather shut down campus COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites and threw a wrench in colleges’ efforts to keep students and employees socially distant.