Fifth and sixth form day students may have been surprised when they returned to campus to find a hallway full of lockers and a sign posed on the door of their day student lounge (DSL) that read, “Emergency Egress.” Without warning, the fifth and sixth form DSL had been closed down, and fifth formers were expected to join what was formerly just the fourth form DSL. For the first two weeks of fall term, sixth formers did not have a DSL.
“We had a space for the last three years and now we don’t. We weren’t informed about it,” said Abigail Clarke ’16, with a sigh.
Lockers for fifth and sixth form day students were moved out of the old lounges and into the hallway. These changes cleared space for the upcoming construction of the new Student Activities Center, which will be built on the site of the old St. John Hall, which was demolished in July.
Dean of Students James Stanley was quick to apologize for the lack of warning. “We simply assumed that people understood that this project would cause displacement,” he admitted. “We should have communicated better.”
This summer, the Wallingford Fire Marshall cleared the hallway as a safe space for the Choate community, but many day students were immediately concerned about the hallway, which, with the new lockers, is narrow and becomes congested easily.
Tulasi Kadiyala ’16 struggles to navigate the hallway, particularly right after classes. “People have shoved past me, and I’ve shoved past people,” she admitted.
“I’ve seen people blocked by me simply standing there with my backpack,” added Alexander Paolozzi ’17.
Last week, a form of relief arrived: what used to be a faculty lounge in the basement of Hill House was converted into a new fifth and sixth-form lounge. Faculty mailboxes, which were previously in that space, have been moved into the room, down the hall and around a corner, which previously held the offices of The News. Those offices are now on the second floor of the Mellon Library.
Though most fifth and sixth form day students seem pleased by the new DSL, many doubt that it will become much more than a place to store their bags, clothes, or instruments. Unlike the other day-student lounges, the new fifth- and sixth-form DSL lacks a door. It sits directly across from the day student lockers, and a person sitting in the DSL can hear everything happening outside of it and vice versa. “I feel like it’s not private. Because it’s in the middle of the hallway, I can also hear people’s conversations,” noted Kadiyala ’16.
Mr. Stanley pointed out that, unlike the other DSLs, the new lounge has only one entry point. While students and faculty can easily walk through the other DSLs to get from one place to the next, making the lounge a more open space, the new DSL is secluded. “If it had a door it’d be very intimidating for someone to say, ‘Okay, am I going to go through that door’. We want everybody to feel like it’s okay to step in there,” Mr. Stanley said.
Mr. Stanley stressed that all of these changes—including the lockers—are only temporary. When the new student center is completed, all day student lockers will be there. “One of our big hopes is that the new SAC is going to be home base for the day students, and that it’s going to draw the boarding students in.” He also emphasized that the lifespans of the current DSLs are waning, as he expects that day students will find homes in the new student center.
“By the spring of 2017,” he said, “all the current day student lounges will be gone.”
With the upheaval caused by the construction of the new student center, “everyone’s taking a hit,” Mr. Stanley said. “But day students are taking a disproportionate hit.”
