This week is set to bring cold temperatures and ice that could make the walk to class slippery, but students have a way to report those potentially dangerous spots.
Anyone can call the IU Control Center, part of IU Facility Operations, at 812-855-8728 to report icy areas almost anywhere on campus other than at residence halls.
This service is nothing new, Beth Feickert, IU Capital Planning project specialist, said in an email. Someone will answer the phone any time, every day of the week.
IU’s Twitter page and the Inside IU Bloomington newsletter have helped to make the service more widely known in the past few years, Feickert said.
IU Student Government chief of staff Isabel Mishkin said she was not aware of the number but thinks it's a good service for IU to provide.
She said she feels it is even more important to monitor slick spots because of students who often ride e-scooters.
“This is a really valuable service that should be better advertised,” she said.
She said she personally has had problems walking down some side streets.
IU’s Landscape Service tries to pretreat sidewalks, parking lots and streets with ice-melting liquid or salt depending on the weather forecast. The crews maintain and clear the areas after a storm and will put ice melt on icy spots they find, Feickert said.
The office keeps 60 tons of sidewalk ice melt in stock and 700 tons of road salt.
The crew clears the most-used sidewalks and roads first.
The time it takes for the crew to get to the area will depend upon the weather conditions.
Each request is logged as calls come in, but crews have to make a first pass of an overall campus route before tending to reported spots. Feickert said campus has over 56 miles of sidewalks and steps and about 21 miles of streets.
“For a typical two-to-three inch snowfall, it will take between eight to 12 hours to complete an entire pass on campus,” she said.
Even places that have been cleared could become slick again because of changing temperatures or more rain or snow.
“Members of the Bloomington and university community should always use caution when moving about the area during winter weather conditions,” she said.
