Next year, Sundays and Thursdays might not be the only days Phillips Academy students have to sign into their dorms at 9:30 p.m. Paul Murphy, Dean of Students, has suggested moving final sign-in from 10 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. This would shift sign-in to 9:30 p.m. on all nights before school days, Sunday through Thursday. The idea is not yet a formal proposal, said Murphy, but he has discussed the suggestion with cluster deans, faculty, cluster presidents and Student Council. If the idea becomes a formal proposal and passes, the change will not take place until next year. Murphy discussed the idea with cluster presidents last Thursday and Student Council on Sunday. Murphy said he received both support and dissention from these student groups. “Surprisingly, the majority of Student Council ended up agreeing with the 9:30 sign-in,” said Malin Adams ’09, School President. “But there were obviously some dissenting voices. I know everybody hates change, but a lot of students were open.” Murphy said that this shift would not affect sign-in times on the weekends. Seniors will still have a Friday sign-in at 11 p.m. and Saturday sign-in will remain 11:30 p.m. for all students. One of the main objectives behind Murphy’s idea is to give Andover students more opportunities to sleep. “The thought that dorms would quiet down half an hour earlier is appealing to me,” said Murphy. “That doesn’t mean that you would make people go to bed earlier but at least you would have a fighting chance.” Michael Scognamiglio ’10 agreed that sign-in at 9:30 would “get me to settle down and finish work and go to bed earlier,” but he did not fully support the idea. “I never get any work done in the library between 9:30 and 10:00,” he said. “But that’s an issue that can be easily resolved with self-control. I think I’d rather have the extra half hour to do homework with friends.” Liz Lavin ’10 said she disliked the suggestion. “An earlier sign-in is not going to make me finish my homework earlier or go to sleep earlier. It’s not going to make me more productive, but just restrict me more. I don’t really see the positive side of it,” said Lavin. Murphy does not regard shifting sign-in to 9:30 as constraining. Rather, he thinks the change would regularize students’ lives. “It takes you a long time after you get back to your dorm to properly settle in and get back to work,” said Adams. “With a constant schedule of 9:30 it might be easier for students to get back to their dorm and start working.” Adams said that some students could be helped by the change because it would “create constancy” and “would help out [students’] schedules and planning of their week.” Murphy said that technology has also made it easier to shift sign-in to an earlier time. “Changing sign-in ten years ago would have been a tough thing because it’s all about being in the library—whereas now, everyone has computers, so doing research does not require a building as it used to,” said Murphy. But some students disagreed with this reasoning and said that many students still use academic buildings at night to study or practice instruments until 10:00 p.m. “There are students getting in practice time right before 10:00,” said Hoonie Moon ’10. “[Sign-in at 9:30] is going to force people to change their schedules at night.” Alessandra Powell ’11 said, “I think in the end it wouldn’t be a good thing. First of all, the people who would use that time to socialize would still use it to socialize.” “I also think it makes it hard to get things done at places like Elson [Art Center] or Graves [Hall], especially since Graves is so far away,” continued Powell. “There is a chance that people would get to bed earlier, but I don’t really know if people go to bed earlier on Sundays or Thursdays anyway.” Demetrius Lalanne ’11 said, “A lot of people can’t work in their dorms and that just takes away more time that you have to work in places of study, like the library or Gelb [Science Center]. It takes away from the feeling of Andover, from the feeling that I’m setting up my own schedule to study.” Last Monday, Murphy presented the idea at a faculty meeting because he believed it was important to talk to house counselors before students. But he said that this idea has circulated among faculty for “a while.” “[The faculty] felt good about the idea, but nothing like we ‘had’ to do this. But there was definitely a positive reaction to it,” said Murphy. Cluster deans have also heard the idea to shift sign-in. Murphy said that the deans “would support it but they’re waiting, just as I am, to hear what general reactions are out there.” Murphy believes that 9:30 sign-in might create a better dorm environment at night for house counselors and dorm meetings. “There is a significant difference in the quality of dorm meetings as you go later into the night,” said Murphy. “If you open up Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday [to 9:30 sign-in], maybe those will be better dorm meeting nights. Murphy has not compared Andover’s sign-in times to peer boarding schools in the process of creating this idea. Some boarding schools have different sign-in times for different grades, said Murphy. “We’re probably more on the liberal side of how late we let people stay out, compared to our peer schools,” said Murphy. “But I haven’t even looked at that. This is about us.” “This is obviously one of those possible changes that is not going to appeal to people because it feels like something is being taken away,” said Murphy. “I encourage people not to think about it that way [but] as a way to reshape what we do as a school, to address the sleep issue, to address house counselors doing as good a job as they possibly can,” he continued.
