While local grocery stores were likely on a shortage of bread and milk during the recent blast of winter weather, UNA’s campus was running short on students.

Canceled classes and the upcoming winter break weekend offered an incentive to head out of town a day or two early, students said.

“I left on Wednesday because I wanted a long weekend,” said freshman Stephanie Waybright, from Pelham.

Waybright said she missed five classes during the week of winter break because of the weather, but was thankful to spend time with her friends from home.

Other students said they decided to stay in Florence for the extended weekend. Some said they noticed a large number of vacant desks the “class-skippers” left behind.

Junior Yui Tahara said the attendance in her Thursday classes fell substantially last week.

Junior Jared Wood said his Thursday class was canceled in expectation of the low attendance.

“The teacher actually canceled because they knew no one would show up anyway,” Wood said. With winter break being Friday, there wouldn’t be anybody there.”

Students who stayed in Florence said the long vacation offered opportunities for catching up on activities that are normally cut from their busy schedules.

Junior Caroline Bobo said she cleaned her apartment and still made time to enjoy playing in the snow.

Tahara said she spent most of the vacation partying and watching movies.

Senior Yadira Patino said watching Netflix was better in the residence halls thanks to so many students deciding to skip town.

“There was nobody in the dorms, so the WiFi was way better,” Patino said. “A lot of people that stayed did their homework or watched Netflix because it would actually load.”

Freshman Sawyer Holland said he enjoyed watching “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and playing video games.

“I hung out with my friends, and we watched it for like a whole day,” Holland said.

Bobo said she also watched “a ton of Netflix.”

Other students said they tried to be responsible and carve out time for doing homework during the break.

“Really, I slept through the snow,” Wood said. “But I also did some homework. I thought it was nice because there was no class Wednesday, and my class got canceled Thursday. So really I had three days plus the weekend.”