What Happens While We’re Away…

By ELINA MRAZ ‘21

Let’s say you’d been having a pretty great break, but after watching Bird Box and wandering around blindfolded, you end up back on campus. What would you find?

Although the Milton campus is much quieter without all the students, faculty, and staff, it is not completely empty. About 15 minutes after the holiday assembly is let out, the campus is already mostly deserted, but some action returns that evening with the faculty and staff holiday party. After the party, the majority of the faculty and staff go home for the holidays and the only people that will return to campus are the girls’ and boys’ hockey teams and fans, the faculty in the Alumni and Development offices, campus safety, the faculty in admissions, Mr. Bland, and a few others.

From Friday through Sunday of first weekend of break, the holiday sports tournaments are going on for basketball and hockey. Although the basketball teams’ games are away, Milton hosts the Floodmar tournament for both the girls’ and the boys’ hockey teams, and their games bring many fans to campus. Additionally, the Alumni and Development office remains open during the break as people continue to give gifts up until the end of the year, and the office needs to make sure that there is someone available to answer calls regarding these gifts.

Because the admissions process is not completed until March, the admissions office also remains busy through the holidays. Paul Rebuck, Dean of Enrollment, states, “While the admission office is not open for campus visits during break, we are busy conducting Skype interviews with students who are not going to be able to arrange a visit to campus.” He adds, “This year we met with close to 100 students during break. In addition to Skype interviews, we are busy responding to prospective families' questions both over the phone and through email. The beginning of January is our busiest time for campus visits and interviews. As of now, it looks like we will have about 300 families coming to campus during the first two weeks of January, so we are also spending time preparing for these visits.”

Many projects regarding the Milton campus are completed over break, like enhancements to the physical plans, the cleaning of buildings, and other work that would be hard to do with students and faculty around. This past break there was also work being done regarding the setting up of card access on the doors to the ACC and Forbes Dining Hall.

Some of the people that you would see at Milton are the faculty and staff who have homes on campus. Although they spend the holidays with their families, in the case of a snow storm, there will be many children sledding down Observatory Hill.

Around campus you would also see campus safety—they’re always monitoring the school grounds, even on holidays such as Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Mr. Bland, too, spends time on campus during the break, attending meetings and completing projects. With the student body and most of the faculty away, Mr. Bland also has time to complete a lot of writing (such as his column for the Milton Magazine, which will come out in early spring).

The majority of the offices close between December 24th and New Year’s Day, making those days the quietest on campus. Regardless, those who stay on campus for much of January do not have as long of a break as the students and many of the other faculty and staff.

The day before the students arrive back on campus, the faculty return for Professional Development Day. The whole school is up and running except for students. The faculty attend workshops, make plans for the rest of the school year, and meet with their departments.   

We returned on January 3rd from our nice 20 day long break and continue on with our lives at school, but Mr. Bland would like to remind the student body that it is important to remember to appreciate the people who continue working on the Milton campus throughout the break.

Image Courtesy of google