Advising groups received a survey on food delivery usage as part of the Food Delivery Task Force’s efforts to develop a food delivery policy amid campus safety concerns. While the task force has begun drafting ideas for restrictions on food delivery on campus, the future of these services remains largely uncertain.
Susan Esty, Dean of Students and Residential Life, explained how the survey was designed to help the task force better understand students’ usage of food delivery and assess how their ideas may affect the Andover community.
“We’re a large community, so even with students on the task force, we needed more information from the community to understand behavioral trends. Understanding what people are currently doing allows us to consider different ideas with the knowledge of how many people they might impact. For instance, if we limited ordering before the first period, how many students would that impact, versus limiting ordering after dinner? Our goal is to focus on meeting community needs for food while moving toward greater community safety,” wrote Esty in an email to The Phillipian.
Esty addressed popular misconceptions about the task force’s potential outcome, clarifying its purpose for institutional decisions regarding food delivery.
“I had not realized that so many students think the school is trying to ‘ban food delivery.’ We formed the task force to inform institutional decision-making, and because we value student voice. We did not enter into our work together with the assumption that there would be only one possible outcome, a ban,” wrote Esty.
Recent reports of delivery vehicles driving in unauthorized parts of campus have raised safety concerns among students and faculty, according to Esty. Ryan Levine ’27, a member of the task force, described their intention to reduce the risk of pedestrian accidents.
“All [of] the board’s priority is just safety. There are a lot of cars going pretty fast on roads and are going on roads that are not roads [but] pathways, especially at night. There have been a couple incidents where there have been really close calls, and we want some way to have a procedure that wouldn’t put any students at risk of being hit by a car or anything like that,” said Levine.
Madeleine Lehman ’27, another member of the task force, discussed the extent to which students have been involved in shaping the task force’s decisions. She explained that while students can offer their thoughts, much of the final policy will be determined by faculty and administration.
“I don’t think that we have a whole ton of say in terms of things that could be added,” said Lehman. “I would say that somewhat we have a voice, but at the same time, it’s more just giving our opinions based on what the faculty in this delivery task force has already decided upon.”
Reflecting on discussions within the task force, Lehman noted that excessive restrictions on food delivery could conflict with Andover’s emphasis on student independence.
“We are honestly going backwards by trying to restrict food delivery too much,” said Lehman. “We’re very forward thinking, and we definitely value independence…Some teachers would disagree and say that we’re making it safer, but that’s just our different opinions.”
Levine outlined the task force’s progress, emphasizing its priorities and limited role in the final policy.
“We already picked out the points [on] campus if we were to have some sort of delivery point where food would be dropped off…and we plan to have at least one DoorDash drop off per cluster. We’ve also done what hours would be best with the safety concerns, and it came to a consensus that it being dark does have an effect on safety,” said Levine.
Levine continued, “At the end of the day, we’re just trying to make people safe, and it’s not up to the students or even most of the teachers on the committee what is going to take place… There shouldn’t be any backlash against the students on the committee. We’re trying our best, and if there’s any outrage, it should be against the people [who] are actually making the decisions.”
