Tuesday marked the third snow day of the semester at Missouri Southern following last Thursday and Friday. There was less than three inches of snow on the ground and the snow plows had hit the main roads in Joplin before 7 a.m.

Wait, why were classes cancelled?

We realize that we are a mostly commuter based campus and that school officials’ first concern is for our safety. But, the lack of severe driving conditions that followed during the remainder of the day led us to the conclusion that there was no need for campus to close—at least for the entire day.

At 5 a.m. when the email was sent out, it was in fact still snowing and driving conditions were not up to par. We understand why the decision was made at that point to cancel classes.

It would have been dangerous for students to be driving at that point in time and with the amount of snow falling at a quick pace, it’s understandable why officials would have believed that students would be unsafe to drive.

But, as the morning went on, we very quickly saw that the roads were, in fact, safe to drive on hence the fantastic snow day students kept tweeting they were having out and about in Joplin.

A better decision that could’ve been made later in the day would be to open campus and resume classes in the afternoon when there was obviously no harm to students to be on the roads.

Pittsburg State University resumed classes at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, obviously noticing the severe driving conditions had ceased.

Students at Southern have now missed two consecutive class periods for their Tues./Thurs. classes. Get ready for piles of homework, everyone.

Students and faculty both are now behind and will now be struggling to keep up.

Midterms are quickly approaching and professors are striving to cover the necessary material and students are struggling to take it all in so quickly.