On Wednesday, May 12, the 2010 recipients of the Choate Rosemary Hall Alumni Award, Caterina Fake ’86 and Dave Phillips ’61, addressed the student body in the Paul Mellon Arts Center during an extended school meeting.

According to Shu Saha ’11, he and Vice-President Madeleine Foote ’11 have met with Headmaster Ed Shanahan to discuss ideas about possible changes to the dress code policy. Student Council representatives recognize that Mr. Shanahan is calling for heightened dress code, but details are yet to be confirmed.

Choate’s West Side Story production premiered this Thursday, May 27. Since the cast began working on the production at the end of winter term, there have been a number of changes in the leadership roles in the performance; nevertheless, according to the musical’s current director Tracy Ginder-Delventhal, “It’s going to be great!”

Since its creation in 2004, Facebook, the most popular social network in the world, has perpetually faced privacy issues. However, in this past year, constant, drastic changes to the company’s approach to privacy have greatly frustrated users of the site, some of whom are threatening to leave – or already have.

At over five thousand words, Facebook’s complex privacy policy is even longer than the United States Constitution (not including the amendments), according to a report published in The New York Times. Facebook’s policy states that they won’t “share your information with advertisers without your consent.” However, a Facebook spokesperson admitted that just a couple of weeks ago, personal information, such as users’ ages, likes, interests, and relationships, was sold to advertisers in what Facebook claims was an accident. When asked what he would do if his information had been sold, Kennyi Aouad ’13 commented, “I wouldn’t go as far as quitting Facebook, but I might start removing some of my information.” In the past month, Facebook has also started sharing data with other third-parties, including Pandora, Microsoft, and Yelp. For example, your Facebook friends can now see which music stations you’ve created on Pandora; the problem is that users don’t know that their details are being dispersed all over the Internet unless they happen to come across it. A large majority of Choate students interviewed were unaware of any new changes in Facebook’s privacy situation.

After four quick years at Choate, I have finally settled in and gotten quite comfortable. Now I must leave. In the midst of my senior spring, I find myself at the end of this conveyor belt called high school. Indeed Choate Rosemary Hall is unique in many respects, yet the general system of high school that dominates our culture remains the same. A prepubescent fourteen year-old steps onto the machine eager for a new and sensational change in his or her daily routine. Side by side with the other prototypes, the teen latches on to the belt and endures a series of procedures. First, the prototype is stripped down and washed to become a blank slate. After this step, the prototype stops at several individual stations. At these stations, the prototype is infused with different methods, facts, and formulas.   

To the Editor:

As a young alumnus of Choate Rosemary Hall, I appreciate the Masthead’s recent effort to voice the opinions of the Choate student body on the Head of School search. While I firmly believe in the power of journalism and commend the Masthead’s statement, I do not think that an editorial or the electronic surveys conducted by the search committee are nearly enough in ensuring that the interests and opinions of students are taken into account in the selection process. While the search committee appears to be composed of very qualified faculty members and trustees, one crucial element is missing—students and recent graduates.