For the fourth year in a row, tropical weather has led to days of cancelled classes that will once again shake up the fall semester for students and faculty and staff.
Classes were cancelled for four days and resumed unexpectedly on Monday after the university uncanceled Monday classes due to a decision by Richland County government.
“With improving weather conditions and forecasts, the University of South Carolina Columbia campus will resume normal operations and all classes will be held on Monday, Sept. 17,” a university statement said.
Florence was at times forecast to bring tropical storm-force winds to Columbia. However, the impacts in the Columbia area were less than originally expected despite extensive damage in other parts of South Carolina and North Carolina. As such, Richland County opened its offices a day earlier than expected, and USC follows Richland County government closures because it is a state agency.
The decision was announced Saturday evening, and some students like third-year advertising student Sarah Waldrop weren't shy about their opinions of the earlier return.
“I was pretty upset about that actually,” she said. “The teachers have already arranged their schedules planning on that day being gone. And then, so many professors canceled classes as it was that I don’t see why the university hosted classes anyways.”
With classes assumed to be canceled after announcements starting Sept. 11, many students went home during the break. Waldrop said she thinks the rapid change in schedules affected the safety of students traveling back to campus through damaged areas.
“There were so many accidents and traffic,” Waldrop said. “It was a mess, so it’s really hard for students to get back on campus.”
Because the announcement about Monday classes was a change in plans, the university asked professors to excuse absences due to travel, and to work with students to make up missed assignments.
Students still have to make up missed work, and some like fourth-year hospitality management student Whitney Blythe expect that the missed classes will impact their semester schedule.
“Professors have the leniency to correct their schedules,” she said. “Like I know my test that I was supposed to have last Thursday is getting pushed to this Thursday. One teacher’s giving a quiz and then canceling the rest of class on Tuesday to rearrange things.”
Students like Blythe and Waldrop said they believe the day would have been more productive had class remained cancelled or not been cancelled in the first place since the storm had little effect on campus or in Columbia in general despite devastation elsewhere.
“It could have been avoided by not taking it as seriously,” Blythe said. “I mean, canceling up until Monday and then being like, ‘oh never mind.’ They probably should have just left it alone.”
Earlier closure decisions by Richland County government that affected USC were made using forecasts that shifted over the course of the week.
Moving forward, professors are making up an entire week’s worth of assignments and homework. Waldrop said she thinks it's too early to know how this loss of class time will affect the rest of the semester academically.
“I mean I understand, like I said, why they also need to have a certain amount of days of classes, but I still feel like a lot of students would have been more productive being able to do their own school work outside of classes and all that,” Waldrop said. “Instead we had to be in class doing assignments that didn’t even count.”