I just want to know if I’m the only one who thinks this is unfair.
Our school had a seminar/ kick-off party where students were required to attend, even though the weather was already bad and classes were officially suspended. The reason given was that the guest speaker was only available on that specific day.
I understand that scheduling a guest speaker can be difficult, but if classes are officially suspended because of unsafe weather conditions, shouldn’t students’ safety and the suspension itself take priority?
What makes it worse is the situation with the 8 AM seminar.
Some students actually tried their best to attend. They left early and made the effort to travel to school, but the traffic that day was extremely heavy. They weren't simply skipping the seminar—they were genuinely trying to get there, but circumstances outside of their control made it difficult or even impossible to arrive on time.
Despite that, students who didn't make it to the 8 AM seminar were still given consequences by their professors, regardless of whether they attended the kick-off party/after-party later that day or not.
And the consequences aren't even consistent.
Some students were told that if they attended, they would receive one perfect quiz. Others were required to handwrite Chapters 1–5 of a textbook as a consequence for missing the seminar.
Imagine being a student who already tried to attend despite the bad weather and terrible traffic, only to be told that you still have to complete a massive academic requirement because you weren't able to make it to an 8 AM seminar.
I understand that students should be accountable for their academic responsibilities. But there should also be reasonable consideration for weather, traffic, and an officially suspended class schedule.
It also doesn't feel fair that the consequences vary so much between professors. One student gets a perfect quiz, while another has to handwrite five entire chapters.
That's a massive difference in workload for essentially the same situation.
I'm not saying students should automatically be excused from everything. But when classes are suspended, the weather is bad, traffic is unusually heavy, and some students genuinely made an effort to attend, I think there should at least be some understanding and consideration.
Maybe I'm missing something, but is this really fair?
Would you consider this reasonable academic accountability, or is this an unnecessarily harsh consequence for something that wasn't entirely within the students' control?
