In response to concerns from faculty members, the annual Prize Ceremony will no longer be held during an All-School Meeting (ASM) in late spring. Rather, prizes will be awarded at a separate time in a more intimate and less public ceremony, according to Paul Murphy, Dean of Students and Residential Life.
A solution to the problem of finding the right venue for the ceremony has yet to be determined. However, a dinner inviting those receiving prizes has been suggested, according to Murphy.
The Prize Ceremony was held annually to present awards to students of particular merit during an ASM in Spring Term. In the past, the awards presented during ASM included athletic-merit awards, as well as general prizes for students in different grades.
Murphy said that one of the faculty’s major concerns stemmed from which departments were selected to give out prizes during ASM. In the past, athletic awards were the only departmental prizes distributed during the ceremony. The Departments of Mathematics and Science, however, have traditionally given out prizes in smaller ceremonies around the same time.
“I think in our evolution as a school, some people are rightly asking: ‘Why are there athletic awards at the whole school thing, and why not music and theater?’ It’s really a question about which programs are privileged in that meeting,” said Murphy.
In addition, the faculty felt uncomfortable publicly singling out a single student from a class of highly talented students to receive the award as the best student in their class, according to Murphy.
“We’re a school of great kids. Why do we make a big deal out of one ninth grader out of 228 of them, and what’s the effect of that on the school?” said Murphy.
“We’re still trying to figure out how to make those awards in such a way that it’s meaningful for the people who are awarded them, but also not divisive,” he continued.
