Students and professors who commute to Northeastern will have to find a way into the city during the Democratic National Convention, Provost Ahmed Abdelal said, because classes will remain as scheduled.

“You don’t want to be trigger happy when it comes to canceling classes,” Abdelal said. “We have a seven week summer semester, it’s not realistic to think that we can cancel two or three sessions and manage to have them made up during that short time.”

The DNC, scheduled from July 26 to 29, will shut down major roadways in and around Boston, causing delays for many commuter students and professors who live outside the city.

“I’d have to take I-93 or Storrow Drive to get to my classes, which are both going to be closed,” said Kalene Walsh, a senior journalism major who commutes to her summer session classes from Arlington. “There’s no way I can get into the city.”

Vice President for Student Affairs Ed Klotzbier said he would work with students to ensure no problems occur during the DNC.

“Any student who needs any kind of special accommodations related to this convention should contact our office and we will do anything we possibly can to accommodate them,” Klotzbier said.

Professors, however, are expected to be at their scheduled classes, Abdelal said, whether or not DNC traffic is an issue for them.

“We expect professors to schedule classes as in the schedule,” Abdelal said. “It’s not appropriate, really, for any of us unilaterally to follow our own schedule.”

One summer session class, however, will receive an alternative assignment instead of classtime during the week of the DNC.

“I commute from Salem,” said Robin Adler, a lecturer in the department of sociology and anthropology. Adler said it would be near impossible for her to make it into Boston during the DNC, but said she understood why Northeastern isn’t canceling classes.

“They really can’t cancel classes, most of the students do live on campus,” she said.

Other Boston schools, however, have chosen to postpone classes during the DNC. Boston University will close at 3 p.m. every day of the convention and Suffolk University has canceled its summer session classes for the week, rescheduling them to later dates. Emerson College, like Northeastern, will remain open with classes as scheduled.

A task force was created, Abdelal said, to address the issue of traffic during the DNC and reached its decision through the provost and president’s offices after a two to three week period.

Abdelal compared the DNC to a threatening weather forecast.

“Right now this is the equivalent of a forecast of a possibly significant snowstorm,” he said. “Short of that, it makes sense not to cancel.”

Some students, not looking forward to the congestion the DNC is predicted to cause, said the issue has not been addressed well enough in their classrooms.

“I haven’t really heard a lot about the convention from my professors,” said Stephanie Banks, a middler marketing major. “No one has really been addressing it.”

Others are thankful their classes are ending before the DNC arrives.

“I plan on avoiding the DNC as much as possible,” said Katherine Torski, a junior anthropology and sociology major studying at Northeastern for the summer. “My one class ends this week. I only commute from Jamaica Plain, so I don’t have to come very far, but if I were taking the train, I know I’d be much more affected.”

Some professors have yet to address the potential problem in their classes, but said they would try to accommodate commuting students as much as possible.

“It’s not their fault,” said William Lancaster, a communication studies lecturer. “If someone was absolutely stuck then I’d try to make some arrangements for them to do work outside of class. I’d probably treat it like an illness or other prolonged absence.”

Other professors said the term is too short to be missing any classes at all.

“I’m expected to be here, and it’s a very short term, so there really isn’t much opportunity to be able to lose four days worth of classes,” said Stephen Hiltz, a history lecturer.

Abdelal said plans could change if the first days of the DNC prove to be very difficult for commuting students and professors.

“We’re going to continue to assess the situation,” he said. “If it will be more challenging, then we can obviously take a different position.”