After a long year of hard work, you’ve finally finished your last freshman-year final. You breathe the fresh spring air as you walk outside, relax on a bench, take a walk in the Arb, or go to A.J.’s Cafe 1844 to celebrate with ice cream and contemplate how best to spend your free time. But then you remember: You have only 24 hours to leave your dorm. Otherwise, you could be fined $50. You must fit days’ worth of post-exam campus relaxation and social plans into mere hours. Unfortunately, this is the experience of many freshmen. This policy unnecessarily hinders what should be an important experience.
A community like ours should celebrate milestones together. Some freshmen may not know any seniors closely, but watching graduation solidifies rising sophomores as members of Hillsdale’s close-knit community and invites reflection on their own future graduation. We do not merely consume information and wisdom from professors and then go on our way. We share life with our peers, with professors, and with staff. We are united toward a common end. We ought to celebrate with those who have accomplished that end and depart the community to start the rest of their lives. To deny freshmen this opportunity is to deny the value of Hillsdale as a self-contained community.
But even if no freshmen and seniors were friends, our current policy still does freshmen a great disservice. Next to finishing senior year, finishing freshman year is arguably our biggest achievement. We ought at least to have the time to celebrate with the members of our own class who have become our closest friends, which the college prevents by quietly sending freshmen away scattered throughout the week.
Practically. enforcement differs significantly from dorm to dorm. When my freshman year ended, I stayed unpunished in Simpson until graduation. But my Olds friends were carefully monitored: In the lobby, a sheet listed each resident’s name with the time of her last final. Everyone had to sign and write the date as she left; the non-compliant were fined. This unequal treatment is unfair, but also proves the rule itself unnecessary.
It may be easier to begin closing down the dorm when students leave early. It may cost money to maintain dorm operations. But are these tiny efficiencies worth truncating a meaningful experience for a quarter of students? Even a necessity to evacuate certain rooms does not explain why freshmen cannot stay in any other college-owned housing after they have checked out of their own dorm. If the administration is worried about students misbehaving without classes, it should just enforce extant rules rather than punish the well-behaved majority of freshmen.
The end of the school year should be a celebration. The days between the end of my freshman year and graduation include some of my favorite memories from that year. I enjoyed picnics with friends, visited parts of the town I had never seen, rested, and attended a student concert. Why deny such experiences to others? Our administration clearly respects the students and works hard to provide an excellent experience. Security unlocks doors if we forget our dorm keys or leave books in a classroom. Our registrar is terrific and personable. The administration cared enough about food quality to change providers when students were unhappy. But in this matter, our administration disrespects the freshmen. The policy needs to change.
