Faculty, Students Split on 4-Year Kilts

“I’m not saying that four-year students don’t deserve their own rituals,” Director of Student Activities Joanne Lembo said of the four-year kilt tradition. “But this is Andover vs. Exeter. It shouldn’t be Exeter vs. Exeter before we even get to Andover.”With the Exeter/Andover games coming up in less than three weeks, the debate over whether the tradition of wearing kilts should not be restricted to only four-year seniors or expanded so that all seniors can wear them is re-emerging.StuCo voted 76-6 with 9 abstentions last Tuesday to keep the kilts for four-year seniors.The kilt debate has been brought up in Student Council annually or biannually for the past 10 years, pressured by concern from the administration, Student Activities and faculty, and a minority of students.Although student opinion is largely in favor of having the kilt for four-year seniors only, the administration feels strongly that the current kilt policy is divisive.“It is disappointing to non four-year seniors, that they don’t have a kilt to celebrate E/A. I wish we didn’t do it this way, and maybe there will be a point where we will have a Student Council that says you’re right, non sibi, let’s give every senior a kilt,” Dean of Students Melissa Mischke said. “I also think, in something like this, it would be great for the students to embrace a change and look at it as a non sibi opportunity rather than us dictating ‘you can’t do this.’”Mischke stated that in the past, there have been cases where parents have called the school to complain that the current policy is discriminative to their children.Lembo echoed Mischke’s opinion, stating that she believed the kilts damaged class unity school spirit on E/A day. For this reason, she stated, Student Activities stopped distributing the kilts two years ago, leaving the job to Student Council instead.“We don’t distribute the kilts anymore, because as Director of Student Activities, I don’t feel comfortable saying to a senior, “you are less than a four-year senior, and therefore you don’t deserve a kilt.”Student Council Advisor and faculty member Laura Marshall felt that the current policy made damaging assumptions that non-four years have worked less hard than four-years.“Those seniors who did not come here as preps also worked hard during their first year of high school. I do not understand why we make a judgment on whether or not someone else's first year(s) of high school are as valuable as those who are at PEA during those years,” Marshall said.Unlike the faculty and administrators on campus, students felt that although exclusive, the kilts did not have a large divisive effect on the class, and should remain a valuable tradition that should remain as a token of recognition for going through all of high school at the Academy.“I’m actually not sure why it is still brought up if there is always a pretty unanimous decision to keep it as a four year tradition,” senior Nina Meyers said.“As a four-year senior, I look forward to being able to wear my kilt on one day out of the whole year and have something to distinguish the hard work I put in with my fellow four-years,” she said.Three-year senior Sasha Jones agreed. “The four years deserve having something to themselves. They dedicated all of their high school career to this place.”