With the beginning of the spring semester comes new schedules. There is a rise in emotions at the start of learning material, and the classes themselves can make or break the remainder of the year. Whether it’s gen-ed or major concentrated courses, there lies the issue that students have experienced since the beginning of every school year: arriving to class late. This issue is unavoidable due to many factors and should not be punishable by any means.

The design of classes is based on the number of credit hours one is taking: a three credit hour class is roughly three hours, and a two credit hour class is possibly two to three hours, all spread out over the week. When registering for classes, they are spaced out in an every-other-day format or other varying forms. Some classes have 10-15 minutes of break time before another class, which is the worst when having to travel across campus. If the only options are two classes with a 10-minute break in between, this creates a stressful situation. Another issue is that some courses have limited availability offered, leaving students with having to fit their entire schedules around it. It all creates more tension during the nightmare that is class registration.

For students living off campus, getting to class can be fairly difficult. Commuting students embark on a more daunting trip to and from their classes with Boone’s traffic and parking crisis. The battle between transportation and commuting students should be taken seriously, as it puts these students at risk of missing out on material as they try their best to arrive. This doesn’t even account for time spent eating, sleeping or working outside of school. Mindfulness of the struggle that they endure should be given for their efforts toward getting to campus on time.

For on-campus students, getting accustomed to 8-10 a.m. classes is a change, and calculating the time it takes from their dorm to class can be a challenge. With some academic buildings being further away like the Living Learning Center, Howard Street Hall and the College of Health Sciences, one can only attempt to get to class on time without having to rush. Alongside trying to figure out what time to eat at either of the two dining halls, the wait times for food and the average time it takes to eat a meal, time flies quickly before class. 

With all these determinants and obstacles that arise on a daily occasion, it can be frustrating to hear complaints about people arriving to class late. Some professors have a no-late-arrival policy resulting in docking points, counting students as absent or embarrassing them in front of the whole class. While there are rare cases of students being late or skipping class intentionally, it’s unfair to those students who strive to make it to class on time and can’t help being late. To all the professors and adults who judge or are mean about it: think about how students still show up and still commit to learning.