While on-campus residents snuggled up in their dorms, William Werner ’28 was sitting in standstill traffic on I-78 on the way back from his Tuesday night class.
“I was maybe a mile or two from my exit, and traffic just came to a stop,” said Werner, a Lower Saucon resident. “A tractor-trailer had caught on fire.”
Toppled trucks topped the list of problems that Lafayette College’s small contingent of commuters faced as 11-plus inches of snow smothered campus last week to start their spring semester.
“I was thinking about the work I had to do,” Werner said with a laugh. “And I wasn’t able to do anything, really, because I wasn’t sure when it was going to start back up.”
Ultimately, Werner’s typical 25-minute drive stretched into a two-hour trek as icy roads, hazardous conditions and long delays abounded as Winter Storm Fern pummeled much of the nation. Notably, a second tractor-trailer took a tumble in Palmer Township later in the week.
“Any snow or ice can be a real detriment for getting to campus, and this time was no exception,” said Cormac Glanas ‘26, a commuter from Williams Township. “Every snowstorm, I can see cars in ditches.”
He was spared from the worst of the blizzard after his classes were canceled on Monday, but issues cropped up on his 15-minute journey nonetheless.
“I almost skidded into another car,” Glanas said, adding that he was given grace by his professor after arriving late to one class.
Jamie Lin ‘27, an Easton native, faced comparatively few challenges during her 10-minute drive up College Hill, but expressed remorse at missing out on the snow day celebrations.
“I missed out on all the spontaneous things that people did,” she said. Her frustrations were compounded later in the week after getting stuck behind a bus.
Lafayette’s commuter population is minuscule, even by small-school standards. Just 6% of students — roughly 160 total — are listed as commuters in Lafayette’s 2025-26 Common Data Set, the lowest percentage since 2015-16.
Students must live within 30 miles of campus in a parent or guardian’s primary residence to qualify for commuter status, and most forms of off-campus living are explicitly prohibited.
Glanas, who works in the Office of Admissions, said commuting-related questions from prospective students are often redirected to him.
“When we’ve got inquiries, they immediately try and find me,” Glanas said. “I think I’m the only commuter that works there.”
It’s not just the workplace where Glanas stands alone; both he and Werner rejected the notion of a “commuter-ty,” saying they only knew of fellow commuters in passing rather than as friends.
“I know one other commuter,” Werner said, before pausing. “Vaguely, not really.”
For now, though, Werner is heading back to the interstate, hoping for quicker travels and fewer traffic jams.
“Yeah, that was unfortunate,” he said.