#PolarBearUp

The weather in Ada, Ohio is so unpredictable that you are almost able to call it when random weather hits. When my brother was a freshman the saying went: “it’s not a Monday in Ada unless it rains”. It was around February of 2014 and I was a freshman at Ohio Northern University when the Polar Vortex hit. The Polar Vortex was a jet stream of freezing cold weather coming right from the North Pole. It is known that we face Ada force winds daily, but add cold weather and a storm was brewing. It unleashed feet of snow onto our campus and it was still an expectation of students to go to class. When we headed into the worst part of the storm around February 21^st, 2014. The campus was in an uproar that classes were still going on. To give background of why this was an issue most days had a high of -20 degrees. Add in the wind chill and we were lucking to be around -40 degrees. Walking from Mac to the dorms involved quick movements and building hopping. Instead of cancelling classes we were sent multiple emails detailing to walk carefully on the icy sidewalks and go through a building whenever possible. The boiling point was an email telling students to wear multiple layers, hats, tight fitting gloves, and snow boots. The big thing at the end of the email was the infamous #PolarBearUp. They did cancel night classes and activities, but it was not enough for students. Within two hours of the email being posted the hashtag was trending on our campus and not in a positive way.

As a senior, we are the last class to remember this time and have survived it. ONU did cancel one day of classes when it became too dangerous to be outside for more than 5 minutes without getting frostbite. Now the university is using their accidentally trending #PolarBearUp to recruit students. It is on the billboard heading into town. My mom wanted to use it on a Facebook post for honors day and she did not understand why I was insulted by it. It would have been a smart marketing tool especially with their active Twitter account, but many students are angered by it. I knew a girl who broke her hip from falling on the ice that winter.

Three benefits of the hashtag are:

1. New recruiting technique. I see posts from new students using it proudly and I am sure it’s because they do not know the origin. It is a good brand technique and the tag is simple and easy to remember.
2. I am proud that it was the only time we had something trending like that on social media, but the university was being risky using it as a recruitment tool.
3. Now that it has been a few years it is less of a hot topic and after my class fully graduates there will be no one left who remembers that winter.

That year has set the bar and I know I can survive any winter like that, but I hope I never have to again. Living in Ada has given me my polar bear fur. The only thing I regret from that winter was deleting the original email. It also seems like every school I have attended had some saying that had a negative connotation by the end. Elementary: finish strong, junior high: in the temple of knowledge, high school: and as always go Firebirds. It is fitting that college has #PolarBearUp