After Double Snow Day, Students Urged To Be Flexible

After a double snow day prompted the College and many other Harvard schools to cancel classes for the third time this semester, administrators are wondering how to make up for lost instructional time.

In an email sent to all College students Tuesday afternoon, Dean of Undergraduate Education Jay M. Harris called on them to be flexible with their schedules to fit in make-up classes. “I’m writing to enlist your help as we work with course instructors to schedule make-up lectures, seminars, and sections for those that could not be held due to the weather,” he wrote.

Harris provided several ideas for making up coursework, suggesting that individual professors and their students work to find mutually convenient times on a class-by-class basis.

By Y. Kit Wu

“Some possibilities include evenings, extended classes, and holding make-up classes on Fridays, when few regularly-scheduled courses meet,” he wrote in the email.

Some professors, however, had classes affected by multiple school closings and are finding it challenging to work around the lost time.

“Between the storm the first week of classes and this one, I’ve lost at least three class sessions,” philosophy professor Edward J. Hall said.

Hall said he plans to poll his students to find a make-up time that works best. “Probably what I’ll end up doing is having two evening sections that are optional but encouraged,” he said.

Although Harris wrote that professors should “do our best to hold make-up classes during the instructional term rather than Reading Period,” he also wrote that “in some cases this will not be possible, and some classes will have to meet during Reading Period.”

Harris could not be reached for comment.

—Staff writer Melissa C. Rodman can be reached at melissa.rodman@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @melissa_rodman