Instead of being open to the entire Senior class like previous years, only student leaders could participate in Orientation.
Almost every Andover student remembers the moment they turned off Main Street and into Pan Athletic Center Circle, surrounded by a mob of cheering students wearing tie-dye shirts and covered in face paint. Celebrating the arrival of new students at Orientation Day has been a tradition that goes back decades at Andover.
This year, the Dean of Students Office changed the selection process for becoming an Orientation Leader, making participation in Orientation Day significantly more selective. Previously, Seniors were allowed to sign up for the position of Orientation Leader, traditionally known as “Blue Keys.” This year, that system was replaced with a predetermined listing of Student Leaders (proctors, prefects, day student mentors, Equity, Balance, and Inclusion (EBI) Seniors, and cluster presidents and reps) who were already on campus, barring regular seniors from participating in Orientation.
According to Assistant Dean of Students Aya Murata, the rationale behind the shift from Blue Keys to Student Leaders was to promote relationships that were more likely to last beyond Orientation Day. She explained that “enough” faculty reports over the years encouraged a rethinking of the Orientation process.
“A concern that would come up year after year was this sort of arbitrary, artificial relationship between the selected Blue Keys and their assigned students. There wasn’t really any connective tissue there… We would hear from new students or sometimes their parents and families that they were supposed to have this Blue Key to help them through orientation, but they were sort of MIA,” said Murata.
Blue Key Heads are Seniors who are elected to lead school spirit and community events within a given school year. Blue Key Heads have historically played a crucial role in the success of orientation day, doing everything from teaching new students cheers to facilitating Blue Key and new student activities. Isaiah Lee ’19, a former Blue Key Head, explained how the new policy could overlook many aspects of student leadership.
“My classmates would agree that one of the best parts about Andover is the number of places on campus that you can find intimate and lasting mentorship. A crucial component of that is the breadth and diversity of the student body. It’s reductive and borderline offensive to the rest of the Senior class to suggest that Student leader Blue Keys are categorically more capable or likely to form long term relationships with new students. If the goal really is to promote meaningful relationships between Seniors and new students, then new students should be given as many opportunities to connect with the right person for them as possible. The change to the tradition is strictly counterproductive,” Lee wrote in an email to The Phillipian.
In an email addressed to the Senior Class of 2026 on May 30, Murata communicated that Orientation Leadership would only be opened up to those with student leadership roles.
She wrote, “This change is for this formal and limited role only. We know and appreciate that it takes all Seniors to set the tone during the opening weeks of school by welcoming and supporting new students, leading by example, and upholding a culture of care, kindness, and inclusivity. In fact, we invite all returning students to cheer on the new students as they walk into the Cochran Chapel for their Matriculation Ceremony.”
Will Ennis ’19, another former Blue Key Head, reflected on the change in Orientation policy. When asked to compare the Matriculation Ceremony to Orientation Day, he commended the effort to bring students together, yet highlighted several key differences between the two.
“First of all, I’m glad they did something. You need some sort of way to bring out the breadth of campus, and it’s nice that they got it in some fashion. [However], I don’t think it’s equivalent at all. Not to put too blunt a point on it, but it’s not… You can’t quite replicate the way everyone feels getting back to campus, all dressed up together, colorful, and standing on the corner,” said Ennis.
Ennis also provided his opinion on the rationale behind the switch that aimed to prioritize fostering relationships between students. While he acknowledged that he understood the reasoning, he pointed out several aspects of student relationships that may have been left out of consideration.
“I do understand the sentiment. I don’t think that they’re entirely wrong that the Blue Key-Freshman relationship is one that by its nature has a ton of staying-power. It’s probably correct that it tends to be a little more transitory, [but] I disagree on the fact that that is a problem. One great thing about Andover is you are going to have opportunities to form strong mentor-mentee friendships across grades. You have your whole Freshman year to get to know the Upperclassmen, [and] those kinds of relationships form naturally and are strengthened over the course of the year,” said Ennis.
He added, “It feels like an overcorrection. You’re just not getting the level of benefit to substantiate a decision to lock all these people out of being a Blue Key who would have wanted to be a part of it and would have made the experience stronger for all the Freshmen.”
Due to the fact that she doesn’t hold a Leadership Position, Phia Cutler ’26 is one Senior who was disappointed to learn that she couldn’t participate in Orientation Day. As a day student living near campus, Cutler decided to go to the corner despite not receiving a traditional tie dye shirt. She commented on the decline in turnout.
“I definitely think that there used to be a lot more people there. Just visually you can tell. The amount of people can change the amount of energy that you get. In the past I’ve literally been able to hear the cheering from my house, but this year I couldn’t. When I went there, I could hear Drumline, but that was it,” said Cutler.
She continued, “When I was on the corner, there were only about 20 people on my side and 20 people on the other side. It’s usually half the Senior class there, so it definitely made a difference.”
Lee ’19 reflected on the purpose of Orientation Day. He recalled the importance of feeling welcomed, especially as a Freshman in an environment that is new and away from home.
“The whole tradition is about giving the right first impression. Anyone who knows what it feels like to show up on that first day as a 13 or 14 year old kid and be greeted so warmly by what feels like a majority of the senior class who, by the way, have voluntarily elected to return to school early (which, if you think about it, is kind of insane and probably doesn’t happen in many other high schools). The tradition instantly communicates to that new student sitting in their parents’ car that Andover is a place where people genuinely want to be, and that it’s a place that wants you to be there. That is the right first impression,” wrote Lee in an email to The Phillipian.
