The weekend of October 8th was one of the most devastating for those living in North Carolina. Hurricane Matthew came sweeping in after hitting the coast of much of South Carolina, Georgia, and a good amount of Florida. Most of the colleges and universities were on Fall Break at the time and so many students traveled back home to be with their family during the scary times. Students traveled and then found themselves stuck as parts of I-95 was closed and there were many road blockages and flooding causing road closures.

Students struggled to get back to class on Monday, but in reality a good number of those who traveled, were not able to get to class in time for Monday. The safety of the students traveling from Fall Break was not just overlooked and ignored, many Chancellors and Presidents, like at North Carolina State University and Meredith College, came out with letters to the student body regarding the importance of the classes staying open on Monday even though the state had just been hit with one of the worst hurricanes in my lifetime. Defending the school staying open left many students feeling like the Universities were setting their students up for failure as it left the absence excuse to the professors' discretion, as well as the overall lack of empathy for students who fear for their safety on the roads. Other schools in North Carolina, closer to the coast of course, did have school shut down at least for a couple days after Fall Break for the safety of the students. Students were able to better plan getting to school from their family homes in a safe manner compared to the general lack of sympathy from universities like NC State or Meredith College who outright said students have no reason to be harmed. Woodson, the chancellor of NC State, came out and said “We know there are individuals in our NC State community who remain affected by power outages and flooding issues, who have had to return to their hometowns and family farms to help families dealing with flooding or other damage, or who otherwise have difficulty traveling to campus due to Hurricane Matthew,” Woodson wrote. “Our top concern remains the safety and wellbeing of students, faculty, staff and their families.”