by Kaelynd Brouillette ’29 on September 25, 2025
Campus
I don’t let myself skip class. In fact, I usually think there is little point in doing so. However, I was ready to make an exception to my personal rule on the Friday before Columbus Day. Like many other students, I had made travel arrangements to go home that day, booking a flight in advance due to living significantly far away. Missing that one day of classes seemed like a small trade-off for spending extra time with my family, whom I had not seen since move-in day. What I did not anticipate was that my Development of Western Civilizations (DWC) professor had scheduled an in-class exam for that day. This exam is worth a significant portion of my grade, and I debated with myself over whether this was really my fault or not. After all, I was the one who decided I needed to go home and booked the flight. When I asked my professor if I could take the exam earlier, I was told that it was not an option.
This whole situation left me thinking about fairness. On the surface, the professor was not doing anything wrong, as this exam was scheduled, and I failed to take that into account when booking my flight. Nonetheless, when an exam falls right before a long weekend, it creates an almost unavoidable clash between academic obligations and the logistics of student life. For those of us who have to fly home, we know that it is not as easy to simply go home on a weekend, making us have to take advantage of the few three-day weekends we do have. Sometimes, that means we take a Friday off to optimize the little time we have with our families. In other words, it’s not just skipping class for “convenience,” it’s a matter of balancing our responsibilities as students with our lives beyond campus.
Providence College’s Student Congress recognizes how disruptive exam timing can be. That’s why it has passed legislation regulating the use of out-of-class assessments, as they place additional burdens on students’ time. However, since my DWC exam was during regular class time, it did not fall under the policy. Technically, no rules were broken. Still, it raises an important question: if the spirit of the legislation is to protect students from unfairly timed assessments, shouldn’t in-class exams scheduled right before breaks also be part of the conversation?
I want to be clear: this is not about blaming professors or attacking the administration. I get it. If you make an exception for one person, then you have to do it for everyone. Faculty have their own curriculum goals and deadlines, which unfortunately don’t always necessarily align with our goals and lives as students. From the perspective of a student who simply wants to see her family, these policies reflect the reality that our schedules don’t exist in a vacuum. A Friday exam is brutal enough as it is, especially the week leading up to a long weekend, but then it forces me, as well as many others facing the same issue, to make decisions about time, family, and whether taking the zero is worth it.
Personally, this issue is bigger than just one DWC exam. It points to a broader gap between academic expectations and student realities. When we talk about fostering a supportive learning environment, we need to ask ourselves if policies, whether professor-specific or directly from Student Congress, account for the lived experiences of students, especially in moments where academic calendars collide with travel demands and family responsibilities. I believe that fairness isn’t just about following the letter of the policy, but honoring the spirit of what those policies are meant to do for the students. If PC can already recognize that timing matters when it comes to exams, maybe it’s time to broaden the scope and ask how we can make sure assessments are rigorous, without being unnecessarily burdensome?
Although I still have not quite figured out what I am going to do about my situation yet, I do know that it is not unique. Plenty of long-distance students face the struggles of navigating travel and big exams before breaks. Fairness should not end at what the policies say, but truly working with students to take into account their realities and demands of college life.