diff --git a/apt/create_instance.in b/apt/create_instance.in
index 7a03bfc243370463052525f2a3849ac17fb06d2b..7f49834b251f06da01d3de3882a0880983297e0c 100755
--- a/apt/create_instance.in
+++ b/apt/create_instance.in
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ use English;
 use Getopt::Long;
 use XML::Simple;
 use File::Temp qw(tempfile :mktemp tmpnam :POSIX);
+use Date::Parse;
 use Data::Dumper;
 use Cwd qw(realpath);
 
@@ -637,6 +638,13 @@ if ($localuser) {
 	if (GetSiteVar("protogeni/use_imagetracker") &&	
 	    EmulabFeatures->FeatureEnabled("APT_UseImageTracker",
 					   $emulab_user, $project));
+
+    # Hack for Kobus' class, generalize someday.
+    if ($pid eq "CS4480-2017") {
+	my $termination = str2time("2017-05-02");
+	# convert to hours till then
+	$duration = int(($termination - time()) / 3600);
+    }
 }
 elsif (!$localuser) {
     if (defined($sshkey)) {    #