The Stu’s Physical Divide
By KATHRYN FERNANDOPULLE '21
Every recess, I watch countless juniors and seniors looking down at us lowly freshman and sophomores. To all you upperclassmen, I promise you: our lives are not that interesting. Even though teachers try to convince students that “grade divides do not exist,” very few people believe them. In fact, the upper and underclassmen divide, though invisible to faculty, has become so strong that upperclassmen are taken aback when a freshman lounges at the top of the Stu, and Freshman stare, confused, when a senior enters the Cave. The Stu, it seems, is architecturally designed for the upperclassmen to hover and for the freshman to be clustered into a small corner of the building. This relationship has become predatory: the underclassmen, little ducklings, and the upperclassmen, tigers, ready to pounce on their prey.
As a Freshman, I can confidently say that the divide between grades exist. From the dining hall, to the hallways, to the dorm rooms, juniors and seniors get priority. In Forbes Dining Hall, if a Freshman tries to cut the line, an older student will call him out and make him go to the back. While I support regulation of lunch line cutting, if a senior were to cut the line, I can guarantee that few freshman would have the guts to stand up and tell the senior to get to the back of the line, even if the underclassmen are in the right. Similarly, I have observed the presence of seniority in dorms. Even though a dorm common room is technically a communal space, I’ve seen older students get up from their seats on the couches to open up seating options for Seniors. But this seating system doesn’t exist only in dorm settings. Forbes Dining Hall has unspoken seating rules despite the absence of designated seating signs. While I do not think that any underclassmen would have the courage and audacity to sit in the Senior and Junior section, I am sure that were a Freshman given the choice to sit where they wanted, the Freshman wouldn’t choose to sit in the sticky back corner of the cafeteria.
The root of these problems seems to lie not only in our school culture but also in our building designs which are perfectly designed to encourage this grade division. From the two segregated levels of the Stu, to the levels of King, to the sections in Forbes, Milton is unintentionally enforcing class division. In order to make Milton a more inclusive community, this divide must be eliminated. I look forward to the Stu renovation which will, hopefully, not create separate sections for specific grades.