SU students share mixed opinions about Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction
Meghan Hendericks | Photo Editor
Emily Wampold, a freshman, wasn’t surprised at the prediction result. Senior Elizabeth Stuart was similarly unsurprised, but she believes Mother Nature could still bring spring to Syracuse sometime soon.
Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.
This Groundhog Day, Syracuse University students were looking for an end to an extreme winter. Punxsutawney Phil, however, did not deliver the news many students were looking for when he saw his shadow, indicating six more weeks of winter. The Daily Orange Culture Staff caught up with SU students to get their thoughts on the groundhog’s prediction.
Erin Manion, a senior music industry major, said Phil caused a potential bump in the road for her, but she doesn’t fully buy his prediction for the remainder of the season.
“Oh the groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil really messing with my stride,” Manion said. “But I also feel like it’s a hoax. I feel like he’s going to be wrong.”
Manion was far from alone in this sentiment of sadness and distrust in Phil’s forecast. Other students expressed that they were angry with Phil for his inconvenient prediction of six more weeks of winter.
Freshman pre-med biology major Maria Madero was eager for spring due to the recent amount of sunshine in Syracuse but was disappointed by the fact that it might take a little longer to arrive.
“(I’m) kind of upset … especially with how it’s been so sunny recently. It kind of mentally prepared me for spring,” Madero said.
Further, Ki Kwon, a senior political science major, expressed his anger, as he is from a country that has warm weather and would prefer summer. Kwon said that winter is definitely an issue for him.
At the other end of the spectrum, there are some students who were more open to Phil’s prediction of additional winter weather. Dyana Gales, a freshman broadcast journalism major, said that they didn’t mind the extension of cold weather that the groundhog anticipated, despite being from Los Angeles.
“I kind of like it, the winter,” Gales said. “It’s my first time having it, so I’m OK with it.”
Grayce Nichols, a sophomore also from California, said she doesn’t mind the prolonged winter either. She said although she’s from Northern California, she would enjoy gray skies and more snow.
Other SU students had a feeling that Phil was going to see his shadow. Emily Wampold, a freshman policy studies major, was expecting Phil to predict more winter, and she even joked that the groundhog might originally be from Syracuse.
“It’s definitely not a surprise. I think he might be a Syracuse boy, because honestly, it’s always winter. I didn’t expect any spring here,” they said.
Elizabeth Stuart, a senior music industry major, saw the news coming but is still upset by it. She said another part of her simultaneously doesn’t care about the bad news the groundhog brought. At the end of the day, Stuart believes Mother Nature is going to decide on how long the winter weather lasts in Syracuse and that Punxsutawney Phil can only do so much when it comes to the weather.
Freshman Phillip Patch is ready to brave the storm ahead, even if it means experiencing weather that is a lot colder than his home state of Texas, which he says has lows in the 40s during normal winters.
“Naturally, I’m well equipped for what’s coming, so obviously it’s not that big a deal to me,” Patch said. “It’s just sad that I won’t be able to ride my bike very much.”
Published on February 2, 2022 at 10:45 pm
