Last week, as the streets of Columbus once more filled up with snow, it occurred to me that the onset of winter in Ohio is like death: we all know it’s coming, yet we’re still shocked and outraged when it arrives.

As with death, it would be good for all of us if we could accept winter’s inevitability. It also helps, I think, to properly prepare for it.

Second-years and older will remember the Great Columbus Ice Storm of last February. In terms of well-being for students, faculty and staff, it was a horror show: Feb. 2 and 3, about 90 people were admitted to the OSU Medical Center for ice-related injuries.

An innumerably higher amount slipped and fell, eating, in the parlance of our time, some pavement. While their injuries may not have required hospitalization, you can bet they were nursing some pretty major boo-boos (again, parlance of the time) for days after.

The relative safety of walking on campus that week is a testament to some excellent work by the men and women of Facilities Operations and Development and Transportation and Parking.

Those of you who experienced the Emergency Room on Ice may remember, as I do, that campus was difficult but walkable. You could at least see the sidewalk, which is better than I can say for the walk from Norwich Avenue to High Street.

That Tuesday, I remember scampering west toward High Street like some oversized penguin, watching as fellow walkers tumbled around me like drunken Icecapades.

I don’t have a statistical breakdown of the areas where injuries occurred, but I’d bet a significant number took place in the area east of High Street. The university certainly did a great job ensuring the safety of students on campus. Though it would seem that in the frenzy of melting ice, they forgot about the ones off-campus.

It’s understood that when students move out of the dorms, they agree to give up certain perks of on-campus living. No more Commons brunches, BuckID laundry, or front-desk spare keys. Yet finding and living in your own apartment is, I would argue, an essential part of the Ohio State experience. It’s part of growing up. But we shouldn’t be forced to endanger our health because we chose to leave the dorms. Haven’t we been punished enough by mean landlords and faulty air conditioning units?

I don’t want to play the victim. I know that faculty and commuters had a hard time too. But given the parking situation on campus, the University District may be the only neighborhood in Columbus in which it’s practically mandatory for residents to walk to their destination. And we can’t exactly put snow tires on our Timberlands.

So what will we do if and when the Great Ice Storm of 2012 hits? What our generation does best—complain. Don’t just Tweet about it. Let’s fill up inboxes reminding the powers that be that while the dorms make great tour highlights, there are thousands of us living elsewhere, and we deserve to get to class without a broken arm.