Office of the Registrar rightly waives late fees due to severe weather

The remains of Hurricane Floyd hit Boston early this morning, bringing torrential downpours and gusts of up to 70 m.p.h. to the region. Across New England yesterday, schools let out early and residents prepared for possible flooding, especially in urban areas. Air transportation has come to a virtual standstill, with most flights into and out of Logan airport cancelled.

By an unfortunate coincidence, today is also upperclass registration. Students will have to slog through the wind and rain today to get their study cards. And those stranded at airports across the nation waiting for flights to resume will have a $50 late registration fee waiting for them when they finally make it back to Cambridge.

Or they would have. Luckily, the Registrar said yesterday that the fee would be waived. What's more, students are not going to have to present paperwork to claim the waiver. The Registrar is going to take students' word for it if they say they were late registering because of the storm.

Harvard is not renowned for its leniency when it comes to forgiving fees, and the Registrar's decision to bend the rules is greatly appreciated. We're pleasantly surprised that they've decided to trust students instead of putting them through a bureaucratic maze to claim exemption from the fee. Maybe this is the closest to a snow day we're ever going to get.