I would like to take this space to publicly acknowledge how grateful I am of the CU staff’s response to the hurricane. The response was incredible and inspiring. Among what I saw (please do fill me in on other incredible work they did):

• Barnard and Columbia dining staff stayed overnight to feed us.
• Much of Barnard and Columbia’s personnel (Dining, Facilities, Public Safety) stayed on campus for us.
• When I was out on a 3 a.m. Westside run following the hurricane, I expected the streets to be littered with rubbish and devastated trees. Instead, I did not see a single fallen tree nor gargantuan piles of rubbish everywhere, but rather two huge-ass dumpsters.
• When I was out late that night, I saw Public Safety cars roaming everywhere. I’d be willing to wager I saw more public safety after the hurricane than I did when Obama spoke here.
• When the CS servers shut down, comp sci professors were up all night available to field questions.
• KeSho sent timely emails and tweets that really made me feel like I was being taken care of.

Even though the worst of the storm did not hit us, to say the least, we still experienced some pretty bad weather. The staff was ready on this one, and for that, I take my hat off to them. 

One of the first things I learned as a wee freshman wearing PJs was that the administration doesn’t care about us. Over the years with all the meetings I’ve gotten to have with admins through Spec, I can confidently say the previous statement is (mostly) false (though I can definitely see why admins would have that reputation). The efforts all the staffers put in are but another measure of reassurance for me and for why we should feel so lucky to be surrounded by people who, yes, care.

Mikey Zhong is a Spectrum opinion blogger. He got his Ruggles guard a bagel. He feels awfully good about himself.