This Monday I woke up at six in the morning, the chilly late January frost biting all around me even from my bedroom. Columbia College turns out to stay open, I discover with dismay as I check Columbia’s website for the verdict of open or close. Columbia’s site cautioned students and faculty on keeping safe during this abnormally freezing cold, though deciding to go through with its first day of spring semester, as had other colleges throughout the Chicago area. Why this decision on the part of many schools was shocking and disheartening was because the weather this morning was said to be so cold and bitter that one could get frost-bite on any exposed skin within the space of just five minutes. The temperature was about -11 degrees. The sidewalks were both slippery and frozen solid. The trek to Columbia did not look like any walk in the park.