We’ve all been there. It’s a jam-packed week. You are taking 18 credit hours, have three exams and are expected to be at multiple club meetings. Sometimes, sitting in class isn’t the most beneficial use of your time. You know it, and professors know it too, at least when it affects their schedules.

Professors cancel classes all of the time. Last semester, I had a class where the professor canceled so many times that we missed a whole unit to the point where he had to take it off of the final.

To break it down, a class that meets twice a week during the fall semester will typically have 29 class periods. At the current rate, for out-of-state students, that’s more than $175 per class meeting. I have never heard of any professor offering a refund to students, and although that may sound a little ridiculous, so does just throwing away that much money without a blink of an eye.

Additionally, many professors will drop your grade instantly if you miss just a single class. If I am going to throw away that much money, it will be for a good reason.

I am not advising you to skip class; I love class. I just want to draw attention to the disparities that exist between professors and students and shine some light on what a canceled or skipped class equates to monetarily.

If a professor is not going to reimburse us for the money we lose when they cancel class, they should at least cut us some slack when we can’t make it, too. After all, we are the ones paying to be here.