On February 17, Simmons University students were shocked to find that a tree had fallen outside of South Hall. Winds that were heavier than usual plagued the Boston area, causing the large tree to uproot and knock down a second smaller tree, blocking many students’ paths. No injuries or damages to the walkway affected were reported.
The Simmons Facilities team responded to this incident quickly. “As soon as the Facilities team heard of the incident, we contacted our landscape team at Brightview for tree removal,” Laura Brink Pisinski, the Vice President of University Real Estate and Facilities Management, shared with the Voice in a statement.
Isheeta Krishna, a Finance and Economics double major at Simmons and resident of South Hall, was in her room when the tree fell.
“I heard a couple of people on the floor below me… yelling and I was like, ‘what’s going on?’” Krishna said in an interview with the Voice. She then left her dorm to get food from Bartol Hall, the dining hall on the Simmons residential campus and saw the fallen tree.
“I was quite impressed how it fell and didn’t hit any of the buildings… every time I see [pictures of the tree], I’m just like ‘wow, it could’ve hit anything,” Katelyn Fox, a Simmons student graduating this May and a resident of Evans Hall, told the Voice.
Public Safety taped off the area and students were not able to walk on the pathway between Evans and South Hall for the remainder of the day. Brightview removed the trees and debris the next day.
