News Staff Reporter
Students flipping through the Student Handbook will discover that along with a couple of minor rule changes, several major new restrictions on coed visiting will be imposed this term. Coed visitation has, in the past, been open to all forms. In the 2006 – 2007 Handbook, coed visiting is prohibited for third formers for the fall term, and all coed visiting between freshman and seniors is banned. In addition, coed visiting times have been further limited.
The Handbook introduces a few other rule changes for this school year. Under the Personal Integrity section, for example, it now says that all material posted by Choate students on the Internet, including MySpace and Facebook, must be “appropriate and consistent with all school rules and regulations.” Permissible parking spaces for day students’ cars have been clarified: students may park only in the lot next to the football field, not on the streets nearby. Finally, the dress code has been revised to emphasize no “hooded sweatshirts.”
Dean of Students John Ford initiated the coed rule changes in response to issues from previous years. He believes that eliminating coed for freshmen in the fall is in their best interests as new students. As he stated, “I think that third formers have enough on their plates as they get here and are trying to figure the school out.”
According to Mr. Ford, the ban on coed visiting between the third and sixth forms mostly reflects legal concerns about age difference. Student Council President Jeff Rosen ‘07 agreed in an interview: “You have the majority of sixth formers being 17 or 18, and the majority of third formers being 13, 14, or 15, and that’s an age difference that the school really doesn’t want to have to deal with.”
The new regulations also reduce co-ed visiting hours all together. Now, students may have coed from 5:30 pm until 7:30 pm on class day evenings, eliminating the 3:00-5:30 time slot that was allowed last year. On weekends, visiting hours have been pushed from 10 am to noon. Mr. Ford explained that faculty should not be bothered first thing on a Saturday with coed permission requests, and coed visiting so early in the morning is inappropriate.
In a compromise presented by the Student Council, according to Rosen, third formers may visit each other’s dorm common rooms. Mr. Ford also said that he plans to “loosen things up a bit in the winter” if all goes well with common room visits and 3rd form dorm life this fall.
Brit’nee Haskins ‘07, a prefect Nichols, said that although she was initially “surprised” by the change, she now believes the 3rd formers will benefit from it.
From a student’s perspective, Mr. Ford said knowingly that teenagers “tend to be an adventuresome lot,” but hoped that Choate students will continue to make the right decisions.
