Only five minutes remain in a 50-minute class. The professor ties up his final points with examples from the text while anxiously glancing at the clock. Students are furiously scribbling down the last notes when a sound echoes through the lecture hall: the rustling of notebooks being thrown into a bag, followed by a loud, quick zip as the bag is closed.

Like a spell that’s been broken, suddenly dozens of students follow the example, packing up their pens and notes while the professor scrambles to get his last choice words out while he has a chance. Soon, students are actually leaving the classroom, though three minutes remain before the end of the period.

The professor realizes his doom and quickly yells out the assignment for next period before giving up and packing his things, too.

As students, we lead extremely busy lives. Full-time schooling plus part- or full-time work, adds up to a very stressful schedule. Sometimes we have classes a scant 10 minutes apart, and often, a mile of campus stands between us and our destination. However, these aren’t excuses for the behavior exhibited by many in the classroom.

When a student leaves five minutes early, he or she misses 10 percent of each 50 minute lecture. That’s 10 percent of the student’s education going to waste.

Forgetting tuition money spent on a variety of fees, basic tuition for residents is $3,324. Splitting that cost to represent the average of five classes taken at a time, that’s $665 per class. If a student is spending that much money on each class and chooses to leave five minutes early every class period, that can be about $66 dollars thrown away, per class, per semester. And after four-plus years, that really starts to add up.

But that’s just the financial perspective. There are other, more important reasons to avoid this kind of behavior.

Leaving class early is just plain rude.

The noise and disruption that inevitably accompanies a student’s premature exit ruins fellow students’ ability to learn. Distracted by the noise of backpacks zipping and desks being lifted and dropped, a student is unlikely to hear or remember what their professor is saying.

It also seriously undermines the professor’s attempts to communicate his final, precious messages to students; he will be forced to delay his schedule, pushing items further back on the syllabus each day. Eventually some material will be dropped, leaving you, the student, paying the same amount for a diminished education.

Just as students and professors are affected by this discourteous behavior, the students and professors are responsible for its occurrence.

Obviously, students can prevent this classroom disruption by simply not leaving early. Except for cases of emergency or previously-arranged appointments, there is no reason for a student to get up while a professor is still speaking.

Maybe your next class is far away, you’re supposed to meet someone at a certain time, or you’re desperate to finish a project due in an hour; whatever the reason, the answer is simple: Just don’t do it.

It’s inconsiderate.

Though professors may not be the root of the problem, they hold partial responsibility for the prevalence of students leaving early. Every instructor who allows students to depart unchecked perpetuates the idea that packing up during lecture is OK. Rather than giving up and leaving the rest of the lecture for the following period, professors should take control of their class and call out the disruptors.

Packing your things early may seem like no big deal, but when it happens again and again, it ruins the educational experience of the professors and students.

If you want an education, stick around to get it.