Competition clubs such as Andover Rocketry Club and DECA (above) face new restrictions for attending off-campus competitions, enforced on a case-by-case basis.
Various clubs are no longer permitted to represent Andover at off-campus events that interfere with class. The restriction is enforced on a case-by-case basis, as some clubs who compete in off-campus competitions are currently still permitted to run.
Clubs currently prohibited include the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) and Phillips Academy Speech and Debate (PASD), while the Andover Rocketry Club is now representing a separate non-profit entity called Brickyard Collaborative instead of Andover at competitions.
According to Evelyn Kung ’26, Co-President of PASD, the decision that the club would no longer exist was relayed to the board in early October through their club advisor who met with Susan Esty, Dean of Students and Residential Life, and Christopher Capano, Director of the Student Activities Office. Kung stated that the restriction did not seem open for discussion and reflected on the potential causes of the decision.
“I really feel that [PASD] and DECA are two pretty academic clubs that almost every other high school in the nation has. To shut those down [is] a pretty big move on the school because debate and DECA are almost sports in a way. People spend their entire lives training for this and going to competitions. For some people, debate is a pathway to college and other opportunities, so to shut these clubs down is a big deal,” said Kung.
Melinda Wu ’25, Co-President of DECA, spoke about how her club was informed about the change regarding off-campus competitions last spring when the team attempted to get permission to attend state competitions from March 7 to March 9 over Spring Break. DECA ultimately qualified for the International Career Development Conference in Anaheim, California. Because they would’ve missed three days of school, the club was prohibited from attending under the school’s name. However, association with a school name is required for competition entry, and thus, the club could not compete.
This year, Wu said that when DECA went straight to Capano to ask if attending regionals competitions for states was a possibility, they were given an explicit no. She attributed the club’s frustrations to a lack of standardization.
“Zero standardization on what office we had to go through, which turned out to be the Learning in the World [Office]. There was also no standardization on what type of faculty we could recruit [as club advisors] for each competition. Turnaround for getting it processed was told to be a month. We had three weeks, and they refused to process it,” said Wu.
Jayda Lu ’26, a board member of PASD, explained that the club had dedicated many hours of preparation for the Georgetown Fall Invitation online tournament the weekend of October 11, but was notified that their participation in this competition wouldn’t be possible. Soon after, Lu recalled that their ClubHub account was removed.
“It’s honestly pretty unfair because lots of clubs [are formed] on competitions and are competition-based… Unless they give us some other alternative, it feels like they’re shutting down more doors for me, which is not why I came to Andover,” said Lu.
Esty acknowledged the lack of a streamlined response, “It’s a work in progress. It’s not as though there’s some fully formed policy that we’re keeping secret. It’s not like that at all. We’re wrapping our arms around clubs at Phillips Academy, and it’s a process. We’ll get there.”
Capano explained that the school has not removed approval or support for clubs that compete off-campus. Instead, the administration decided that students cannot be excused from classes to participate in such opportunities under the school’s name unless they are directly connected to an academic program, such as a specific academic department. Coincidingly, Esty also noted that it is problematic for faculty club advisors to miss their academic programming if they attend off-campus competitions.
“The Philomathean Society (Philo) will still debate because they only debate on weekends. Model UN can still do their thing, and there are a couple other clubs that can still debate without any issues or compete without any issues because they’re not going to miss school. A couple of the clubs that the school has decided they wouldn’t excuse you for, if they make it beyond the first round, they would have to miss school. The school wasn’t okay with that, so you can’t miss classes or other commitments for competitions.” said Capano.
Capano continued, “For Philo and Model UN, a lot of other private schools do it, so that’s what they do on the weekends.”
Esty explained that attendance in off-campus competitions unrelated to the school is still permitted through Dean’s excuses, which allow students to miss up to five days of school a year.
“But our students still compete and they can all individually, not representing Phillips Academy and not using Phillips Academy funds, compete at fencing and equestrian and whatever else they’re doing, chess. We had a former world chess champion. We know students are doing that and they can submit for Dean’s Excuses up to five days a year; it says in the Blue Book. It doesn’t mean you automatically get five, but if you were competing in the World Chess Championship, we’re not gonna keep students away from opportunities like that,” said Esty.
Co-President of Andover Rocketry Club, Ishaan Padmawar ’26, recalled that when his club tried to attend Nationals last year, they were allowed to attend only if they paid for the competition fee themselves and that they did not represent Andover in their name, logo, or brand.
“At competitions, Rocketry Club doesn’t represent Andover at all. That’s why we have two names. We have Big Blue Boom Crew, and then we have Andover Rocketry Club. At competitions, we don’t use the Andover name,” said Padmawar.
According to an email from Kara Heintz, Coordinator in the Dean of Students Office, on October 2, students are no longer allowed to apply for Abbot Academy Grants to establish new clubs or for the purpose of attending off campus competitions. Esty explained how clubs can receive funding from the Office of Community and Multicultural Development (CaMD), academic departments, or the Office of Student Activities to ensure equity and access for the student body: “We want things to go through a process so that all students and all their interests have an equal chance of getting supported through the school.”
In contrast, Lu mentioned how PASD, a club established in 2018, did not have an endowment, which created “equity issues because in the long term, the older clubs with the money are the ones…[often] founded by white men.”
Capano urged students to reach out to his office with detailed and reasonable budgets, even those that exceed the preferred one hundred dollar range. He prompted students to consider what is truly necessary for a specific club to operate, contrasting wants for food to needs for supplies, such as yarn for Yarn Club or board games for Board Game Club.
“In general, we try to support clubs when we can. What we tell them is to not expect more than 100 dollars a year, but it’s not an automatic amount because a lot of clubs operate and don’t need any money. To give each club 100 dollars that they don’t spend and take that money back doesn’t seem to make sense. If your club needs funds, you can ask us for funds and if we can help you with that, we will. What we say is if you’re hosting something that the whole school is going to attend, the Student Activities will try to help support that,” said Capano.
Esty ended with a message to the student body, “You’re not the only one who’s confused. I hear you on the confusion front. But I think it will be good to not have confusion. That’s the goal. Hard, messy, sometimes painful, but I think if we get to a point of clarity, everybody can feel good about it.”
Editor’s Note: Ishaan Padmawar ’26 is a Photo Associate Editor for The Phillipian.
