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Nimisha Ghandi, a second-year psychobiology student boards an airport shuttle. She will miss multiple classes tomorrow to get home on time.

At five this morning, Saia Makakaufaki was on his way to St. Louis, flying home to spend Thanksgiving with his family and friends.

He plans to watch movies, play video games and take part in the Thanksgiving dinner. But what he is not planning on doing is worrying about missing his 9 a.m. class.

“I already bought my ticket a month ago, and besides, when I come back, I’ll find the notes on the Internet,” said Makakaufaki, a fifth-year history student.

Many students share Makakaufaki’s sentiments. They skip class in order to be home in time for Thanksgiving.

Carol Oropeza, a first-year undeclared student, said she is skipping her math class to be with her family in Delano, California and to beat traffic.

“My professor goes over what’s in the book anyway,” she said.

Though many students have no qualms about missing class, according to Anita Cotter, associate registrar for student and faculty relations, today is still “considered an official day of instruction for the university and counted as one of the required days for fall quarter.”

She said that professors do not need to inform her office if they are cancelling or shortening a class meeting. Only if they are indefinitely cancelling a class will her office need to be notified.

Many professors and students acknowledge the importance of instruction today and work around the school schedule to fulfill class requirements.

Ronald Mellor, a history professor, said, “I cancelled my history 197 class. However, we are going to meet the following week and will still have to make up the class (missed today).”

He scheduled extra office hours and invited his students to have dinner with him next week to go over material that would have been covered today.

Mellor said professors have the prerogative to cancel their class, but he or she needs to provide a replacement class.

Glenda Jones, graduate advisor of the political science department, agrees with Mellor that professors can cancel class.

“Wednesday is a work day. But if a professor chooses to cancel, he or she should at least contact the department and give prior notice to the students,” Jones said.

Some students are still hanging around campus because they have a test or just didn’t want to miss class.

Maya Oren, third-year political science student, is flying home Thursday because she doesn’t want to go through the trouble of borrowing notes.

“My professor didn’t want to cancel class. I don’t want to miss it. It’s more of a pain to try and get the notes than just to be there,” she said.

Melina Duenas, third-year physiological sciences and Spanish student, is planning to stay on campus until 1 p.m. today because of a Spanish test.

“I don’t mind, but still, it would be better if I could go home early,” she said.