We’ve all heard it, it’s too cold to be walking to class! Well, allow me to enlighten you a bit on the fact that it is not, in fact, too cold to be walking to class. Millikin’s campus is roughly the size of a city block – not a very big campus. That was part of the reason we came here, right? I can get from one side of campus to the other in about five minutes usually. If I decide to walk really slowly, it takes maybe ten. Maybe.

According to the National Weather Service windchill chart, you have to be outside in negative 48 degrees Fahrenheit (at the warmest) in order to get frostbite in five minutes. In order to get frostbite in ten minutes, it has to be (at the warmest) negative 32 degrees. You can get frostbite at negative 18 degrees, but you have to be outside for 30 minutes. It shouldn’t take anyone 30 minutes to walk anywhere on Millikin’s campus.

Furthermore, in order to get frostbite this quickly, your skin has to be exposed. This can be prevented easily – just wear winter clothes! No text message is so important that you need to remove your gloves to send it on the five-minute walk to class. If for some reason it is, just call the person, which is still a thing cell phones can do. Oh, and guess what else, they make gloves that allow you to text while wearing them! If your texting habits are this important, get a pair of those gloves.

If properly covered up, you can manage to be out in the cold for quite a long time without getting frostbite (Longer than the times I’ve mentioned here. Notice these are extreme temperatures). Dressing properly for the winter weather is something that is important to prevention. If covered, the temperatures we’ve been having are indeed safe for walking to classes. Not to mention the fact that the buildings are about a million degrees once you are in out of the cold, which could be part of the reason you feel so extremely cold when you do get outside (It’s way too hot inside!).

I see so many students walking to class in shoes without socks that expose their feet, no scarves, and no hat. Sometimes even no coat. If you choose to go outdoors without wearing these items, that isn’t Millikin’s fault. We are college students. We’ve experienced (at the very least) 18 years of winter weather. You need to bundle up!

And to those of you who think you’re going to get hypothermia, most of the time it’s caused by getting into really cold water. Just stay out of Fairview Park’s lake, and you’ll be fine. There are many people who live in colder temperatures than we are in Central Illinois. It just isn’t cold enough for Millikin to cancel class.