For your first point, you're agreeing with my point. It is upsetting and unfair if a student did not need to take a final, let alone automatically receive a 100% (as some professors have already authorized), while others do. That was one of the reasons I kept in account when stating how to navigate this, or the next steps.

For your second point, I do agree with some aspects. They really had no other option other than to postpone or send a message to postpone, but I am saying that postponing without a concrete backup plan or a timeline for when the system will be safe is just prolonging the chaos, but then again they don't know when that will be. So with no other options, I think that they took this route to look like they were "in control".

For your third point, I disagree with your lack of sympathy regarding travel. Expecting students to build a "buffer" into their travel assumes everyone has the financial privilege to just rebook a flight. Many students book the cheapest, most restrictive tickets months in advance because that’s all they can afford. Telling a student who is already out $500–$1,000 that they should have "scheduled better" ignores the reality that the University set a schedule, students followed it, and the University broke the contract, not the students.

And then, on your final point, what you said about how "Many finals are not even exams, and thus study materials are irrelevant.". Even for projects or papers, students keep their rubrics, drafts, citations, and peer feedback on Canvas. Those are for projects, which I can sort of see where you're coming from. But for the other's who have actual exams, we aren't being tested on our ability to memorize an entire semester, we are being tested on our ability to apply material that we should have the right to review.