Fall break marks a short respite from the grind of school, and this year Winthrop University students got more than they bargained for — both good and bad, in some cases.
Following the break of the water main on Cherry Road in Rock Hill, Winthrop was left without water. Classes were cancelled on Thursday afternoon for the remainder of the day and on Friday as well. Fall break was scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, which meant that some students received what effectively amounted to an extra day-and-a-half off from classes.
Many students already had plans to leave campus over the weekend, but plenty did not, which made for a less-than-ideal fall break. Due to the break in the water main, students were left entirely without access to running water. The university brought in portable toilets and placed them in various convenient locations around campus, but drinking water quickly became scarce and performing basic, everyday tasks such as teeth brushing became more difficult.
The ‘Winthrop meme pages,’ an unaffiliated collective of Instagram accounts that make WU-themed memes, including @winthrop_seagulls, @winthropbrickburglarz, @wonthorp_eagles and @winthorp_nasty_nance, provided comic relief in an unpleasant time. Freshman psychology major Ava West mentioned this while sharing her reaction to the water outage.
“At first, I thought it was humorous mainly because they started implementing porta-potties around campus, plus the memes created around the water crisis were hilarious,” West said. “But then I realized, ‘how am I going to brush my teeth?’ and then I became much more frustrated about it.”
Calvin Dash, an RA in Richardson, expressed concern over the water situation.
“My first response was basically that this isn’t really safe. People can’t use the restroom anywhere on campus, they can’t wash their hands and food can’t be made properly,” Dash said. “This doesn’t really enhance the campus community because it drove us all away. I told my residents that we had no idea when the water would be restored and I didn’t believe that anyone would be upset if they went home early just to take care of themselves.”
Junior integrated marketing communication major Hannah Quental said that the water main break caused difficulties for her, particularly with bottled water quickly disappearing from grocery store shelves.
“My initial reaction during the water crisis was ‘who is responsible for this?’ It affected me at work,” Quental said. “When I was at work that day, everyone kept buying lots and lots of water. There were people who bought like eight cases of water. I wasn’t able to use any of the water until it was on the next day.”
While students who remained on campus during fall break faced a lack of water, students who live in York County were also affected by water restrictions.
Shane O’Reilly, a junior theatre education major, found the humor in the situation despite having to take precautions.
“I’m going to be honest: I laughed when I first heard about it,” O’Reilly said. “My apartment in Fort Mill was under the [boil water advisory], and work closed the day it happened.”
Photo: Anna Sharpe/ The Johnsonian
