After four years of patiently waiting and being confined to your room for study hall, senior year has finally come. Hard work and being on Honors will give you the freedom to do as you wish during study hall.

Oops, never mind, you need to have High Honors now.

Many returning students were outraged when they heard about the policy change involving study hall this year. Senior privileges, freedom from study hall and the ability sign out during the hours of study, had, until this year, been a reward for boarding seniors with a grade average of at least 87, considered “Honors.” However, the new policy change requires senior boarding students to be on “High Honors” or have a grade average of 92 to receive the privileges.

Jack Phelan ’18, a four-year student and three-year boarding student commented, “I don’t understand why they would do it, you should be privileged for having academic success, and there is a sense of trust that goes into that.” Many of his fellow senior classmates also feel confused and agree with Phelan.

Jake Durocher ’18 added to Phelan’s comment, “My friends and I have talked in the past about how nice it would be to go to Dunkin or Antonio’s on a night we did not have a lot of homework, and it’s disappointing that me that we won’t be able to do that now.”

Durocher and Phelan both stated that they would strive to achieve senior privileges, but they both admitted with the standard now raised to High Honors it “raised the bar out of reach.”

These student responses lead The Willistonian to speak with the Deans about the new policy. The driving decision, stated by both David Koritkoski, Associate Dean of Students, and Greg Tuleja, Academic Dean, was that around 80% of the senior class was on Honors.

Koritkoski said he and the rest of the faculty felt, “it wasn’t much of a privilege when over 80% of the senior class was on Honors,” and they wanted students to have something a little more significant to strive for.

Both Koritkoski and Tuleja are aware that the change may cause some controversy with students.

“You’re taking something away from some students, so my gut feeling is that they’re not going to say, ‘Thanks a lot for taking that away from us,'” Tuleja said.

Koritkoski added that he believes, “I’m sure it won’t be a significantly positive change for students.”

Fortunately, there is hope for the Senior class. Although both Koritkoski and Tuleja, along with the faculty, believe that not having senior privileges is helpful during the winter, since the college placement process is still in full gear. However, Koritkoski and Tuleja both said that no policy is set in stone. Tuleja stated, “like any policy that the administration and faculty decide on, it is always subject to revisiting.”