By Chris Brook

Citing rain and an impending 3 to 6 inches of snow, Northeastern canceled day and night classes at all campuses after 4 p.m. Tuesday.

The cancellation is the third this semester.

Director of Communications Fred McGrail said the extraordinary weather the city has received this winter and the safety of the university’s students, faculty and staff swayed officials to “cancel reluctantly.”

“This most recent decision is, as usual, driven by safety,” McGrail said. “Reports came in, said the storm was going to hit the [metro Boston] area at 4 p.m. and intensify very quickly and really make driving and travel unsafe.”

While a number of students were overjoyed at the news of their night classes being canceled, several were more concerned with making up the time lost.

“Being a student, it’s not right for us not to go to class,” said middler photography major Shannon Kelleher, “but you sort of feel bad for the professors who have to drive home. If it’s warranted, I understand the cancellation, but I think we should be given the option to make up the time lost.”

Sophomore biology major Michael Trautwein said when he is on campus, the cancellation does not bother him, but he “wouldn’t feel bad if there was a make-up day set aside, maybe not a Saturday, but a day – I’ve missed three of the same classes this year because of these cancellations.”

McGrail said classes were canceled twice, on Jan. 22 and 24, following blizzard-like conditions and Mayor Thomas M. Menino declaring a state of emergency. A two-hour delay was implemented during Spring Break March 1 due to snow flurries.

In 2003, classes were canceled on a Saturday and subsequently affected a small population of the university. The last time the school encountered cancellations like this year’s was the winter of 2002, when school officials sent professors and students home midday and closed the university for one and a half days.

It remains to be seen if the snow storms projected for Friday will affect the day’s classes.