Andover’s iconic mantra, “Youth from Every Quarter” has served as an admissions catch phrase, a staple of All-School Meetings and a calling card for the academy’s administration, but it seems that we have fallen considerably short of our lauded school’s constitutional statement. The number of day students accounts for a considerable portion of why we have failed, but the administration must also share some of the blame for a lack of true diversity. Confronting this issue requires a clarification of what is meant by “youth from every quarter.” The Academy’s statement of purpose (2004) proposes that the school “seeks students of intelligence and integrity from diverse cultural, racial, socioeconomic, and geographic backgrounds.” The Board of Trustees called for 25 percent of the school to be day students, but this is too many. Next year’s admitted class demonstrates an overabundant number of day students and an equally excessive number of local boarders. The class includes 76 hailing from the Merrimack Valley of the 451 admitted students, slightly more than 15 percent. These numbers fail to recognize the 83 students admitted from Greater Massachusetts. When all is said and done, the incoming class calls 35 percent of its body from the Commonwealth alone. There are obvious benefits in appealing to local students, the most potent of which seems to be money. Day students do not require housing, and because a considerable portion of local students are middle or upper-class, many don’t require financial assistance in order to attend the school. This aspect of the admissions process is necessary because the school has an obligation to its local community and “youth from every quarter” isn’t an exclusionary principle. However, the large number of day students warrants closer attention when other segments of society become underrepresented within the school. The student body currently lacks considerable numbers from Europe, South America and Africa, not to mention an increasingly large section of Western and Southern Asia. For the school to truly be “diverse,” as it supposedly strives to be, the administration must work exponentially harder to attract students from these “quarters” of the world. Remember also that Andover is not meant to be solely an American school, at least according to its statement of purpose. Failing to recognize the onslaught of globalization and the school’s responsibility to educate its students accordingly may be Andover’s greatest flaw. This fault, however, doesn’t just matter in terms of admissions, but it also has implications in almost every section of the school’s educational make-up, save for math and science. The school’s failure to acclimate will almost certainly mirror America’s larger problems in acclimation worldwide. On the other hand, in terms of economic diversity, Andover may deserve some praise. With 173 members of the admitted class receiving some form of financial assistance, it is clear that the Board of Trustees has taken a sizable step forward in enacting at least one of the main goals of its strategic plan. In short, educating “youth from every quarter” is by no means an unattainable goal. However, achieving it will take a united effort by the school to push beyond the security of our local borders.
