Quinnipiac students received an early taste of Thanksgiving break this past week. Classes on the Mount Carmel Campus were cancelled for an entire week due to power outages from Hurricane Sandy.
Quinnipiac’s decision to cancel classes was similar to many other universities in Connecticut. Fairfield University, Hartford University and Central Connecticut State University also canceled classes for at least two days.
“We all need to be flexible when Mother Nature decides to punish,” professor Anne Harrigan said. “The communication from the university kept us well informed of what to expect.”
However, with only two weeks of class before Thanksgiving break, and only four weeks of classes left before exams in the fall 2012 semester, there may not be much time to make up the missed time.
Despite the loss of classes, many professors were not worried about finishing required course material.
“Some of the material I want to cover will have to be consolidated , but it should not be a problem,” School of Communications professor Paul Friedman said. “I’m reworking the syllabus for each course.”
The use of email to distribute assignments and missed work to students was also a viable alternative for many professors to stay up-to-date on course work.
“I had planned to distribute a review guide that we would work through as a class in preparation for a Nov. 5 test,” University Editor and Media Studies 101 professor Janet Waldman said. “Instead, I emailed the guide to the 26 students to work on individually, using the chapter notes I always post on Blackboard.”
Other professors felt that the nature of their college courses allowed for minimal changes.
“The professor merely has to shift some things around and perhaps extend some assignment due dates. The bulk of work for any course takes place outside of class time for the students,” School of Business professor Anne Harrigan said.
For some students like freshman John Whelan, the extra work teachers assigned caused some difficulties.
“Having extra work on top of the assignments I already had was rough. But having the extra time to finish really made a big difference.”
