The Kernel’s Wednesday editorial “Emergency system is wrong medium for weather alerts” was a very big disappointment to me. As a commuter student who lives on one of the last roads in Lexington to be plowed, I greatly appreciated the early morning message from UK Alert, even if it was slightly inconvenient.

Even though I turn on the news every morning as I prepare to come to the university, I tend not to pay attention to the school closings, because as the editorial stated, “a weather delay is uncommon for UK.” After receiving the notification, I turned on the news to confirm it, but it was almost half an hour before the delay was mentioned; by that time, many of my classmates and I would have already left our homes in order to make it to campus on time for classes. While primary and secondary schools may be accustomed to using this medium to check for closings or delays, most college students are not.

Given the size of the university and the fact that not everyone can live within walking distance to the campus, I applaud UK officials for utilizing this new tool. I believe it saved many people from the perils of the morning roads and numerous accidents that could have resulted from dangerous weather and road conditions. I also hate to think of anyone without power one morning who might not hear of a delay until he or she is on campus or nearly there.

If the possibility of severe injuries or deaths to members of the UK community from hazardous road conditions is not an emergency that calls for the utilization of UK’s new emergency notification system, then I fear the worst for what could happen in future severe-weather situations.

Erin Kimla

Animal science junior