Monday morning, we were hit with our third snowstorm in three weeks, leaving the roads slick with ice once again.  However, to the surprise of many UNH students, campus wasn’t closed and classes weren’t canceled.  We had a delayed opening and an early closure, but if you were the unlucky ones who had a class sometime between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m., which I was, you were expected to be in class.

UNH sent out an email saying something along the lines of classes will be held, but we know the roads are bad so if you are a commuter student, make arrangements with your professor to make up the class.  As a commuter student, I know I am not alone when I say that this email extremely frustrated me for numerous reasons.

First of all, the email stated that they knew it was possible that some students were commuting from areas in which the roads were bad.  If this is a known fact, why not just cancel class?  I, myself, was coming from an area about fifty minutes away, where the roads were a sheet of ice and the snow was still accumulating.  If the school KNOWS this is going on in some areas of the state, class should be canceled.  Students shouldn’t even have the opportunity to make the dangerous trek to campus.  Think about it—is a potential accident really worth an hour and fifteen minutes of class?  Would it really be that detrimental to cancel one more class?

Second, it is very unfair that commuter students have to miss out on a class just because we don’t live on campus.  In college, every absence has an effect on your grade, so missing one class is a big deal.  If the classes were canceled all together, at least we would all be on the same playing field, but people who live on campus and don’t face an hour commute now have the upper hand because they got to attend class.

The email said to make arrangements with your professor if you had to miss class, but they didn’t take into consideration that some professors aren’t the most accommodating.  It is now Thursday, and my professor still has not gotten back to me about making an arrangement to help me make up the missed work.  If some students can’t make it to class due to the weather, class should be canceled.  Not everyone can afford the luxury of living on campus and therefore we are forced to commute; we should not be penalized for that.