Winter­ “Blues” Descends upon Exeter Campus

Prep Hector Cruz sits at his desk in Wentworth Hall. The clock’s little hand points to six, and only a fluorescent lamp illuminates the darkened room. The sun has set and the temperatures have sunk into the negatives. Outside, ice and snow blanket the quad and the paths are completely empty.“I think winter term is the most difficult,” Cruz said. “Other terms, you’re immersed in homework but also able to go outside and explore. You are stuck inside during winter and left to face your pile of work with no outlet.”With months of short days, long nights and bone-chilling temperatures, Exonians have coined a phrase to encapsulate the negative effects of the term’s hardships. “Winter term blues”: when work quality drops, club attendance declines and social interactions dip.“Winter term is not more academically challenging than any other term of the year, but the extreme weather and shortened days make it hard for any student to remain consistently engaged and excited,” lower Lucy Weiler said.One recurrent feature of “the blues” is lack of motivation. Every winter, many faculty, clubs heads and ESSO co-heads invent new methods to propel the Exonians through the harsh new year months to the light of spring term.“There has been a significant drop in attendance since the start of winter term,” senior Laura Zawarski, co-head of Exeter Youth Strings ESSO Club, said. “The only way we have been able to deal with it is through recruiting an excessive amount of participants at the beginning of the year.”During winter, the most significant differences in turnout arise in clubs that utilize the outdoors. Upper William Vennes is a co-head of ESSO Canine Partners, a club in which students walk the dogs of local faculty members. Vennes noticed a correlation between the temperature and turnouts. “When it gets this cold out people take a break from dog walking and we see a decline from fall term attendance,” he said.In an effort to boost student numbers, the club sends more emails. In previous years founding members even persuaded friends to come to compensate for the dip in interest. Some groups, like Admissions tour guides, utilize the incentive of warm cocoa or tea to bring more tour guides into the Bissell House during the frosty months. The efforts are often in vain, however. “The truth is it's really difficult to get a ton of people out there in the cold each week,” Venes added.In addition, some faculty detected a weariness in students that is not present during the fall and spring terms. Over the years english instructor Duncan Holcomb identified advisees with SAD—seasonal affective disorder. He noticed students’ “slight depression, low energy, overeating—especially in kids from the South.”Science instructor Brad Robinson said that a decline in students’ health impacts the winter term morale. “I’ve had a few students who have been quite sick and several have had to spend a day in the health center or even go home for a few days,” Robinson saidIn order to deal with “winter term blues,” faculty and health instructors re-emphasized the importance of a balanced diet, regular exercise and a consistent sleep schedule. “The Academy has improved the possibility for winter fatigue by serving a wide array of healthy food including lots of fruits and vegetables,” English instructor Rebecca Moore said.Physical Education instructor Hilary Coder commented on the significance of physical activity. Coder acknowledged that although we feel better and more active when there is more warmth and daylight. “We are animals, after all,” Coder said. “But because we are animals we also know that our bodies respond to our internal release of chemicals. Staying active, especially if that activity can be outdoors, has been proven to produce hormones that calm and soothe us.”However other members of the community stated that Exonians are unaffected by the time of year. Several faculty members believed that the reduction in Saturday classes is proportional to the smaller number of cases of “winter blues.” “Not having Saturday classes gives everyone a chance to rest a bit more between weeks,” Moore said.“My students arrive chilly and perhaps shivering, but they quickly warm up and get to work. I have not observed any change in overall attendance nor in work ethic,” English instructor Jane Cadwell said. “I am impressed with the energy and spunk—perhaps we all see it as a challenge to be met,” Cadwell added.For some students, such as lower David Shepley, winter term has an opposite positive effect. “The preconceived notion that it is the worst term always boosts my work ethic,” Shepley said. “I find that although it is not as enjoyable, you find yourself working more because there are not as many distractions around you.”Though many Exonians disagree with Shepley about the benefits of winter term, the majority believe that through diligent work and a positive outlook, the adverse effects are not too detrimental.“I don't feel winter term blues,” upper Philip Chang said. “When, on occasion the weather starts to get to me, I focus on keeping warm and staying cheery.”From dorms to dining halls, PEA is now officially wireless. In December, Information Technology Services (ITS) completed its project of total access to wireless Internet both ahead of schedule and under budget.Over the past three years, Exeter’s dorm Internet service has transitioned from Ethernet cables with an 11pm to 6am cutoff to 24-hour Ethernet access to the current system of 24 hour, campus-wide wireless Internet.The project for 24/7 Wi-Fi, originally called “the late night Internet plan,” was initially proposed in the February of 2012 under then StuCo president Calvin Willett ‘12.Within four months, the proposition flew through the necessary implementation measures. Both members of StuCo—with 41 in favor, eight against, with three abstentions—and dorm heads voted overwhelmingly for round-the-clock access in February, 2012. Later that school year, faculty also voted in favor. The proposal came into effect in the fall at the beginning of the current academic year.Although the 24/7 Internet plan turned out better than the previously limited access, the administration decided to continue improving Internet on campus by providing Wi-Fi to every dorm in the spring of 2013, after students were facing issues with the accessibility and practicality of Ethernet cables in their rooms.Director of Information Technology Services (ITS) Diane Fandrich, oversaw the project that was accomplished four months early. “The wireless implementation was most definitely a success,” Fandrich said. “Our plans had called for the implementation to be completed during spring break '14 with the final girls' dorm, Merrill. However, we worked with the deans and the faculty in Merrill to revise our plans and we completed the installation in December.”Fandrich attributed the triumph to an overall common ambition. She spoke of the IT department’s collaborative nature and swift adaptations through problems. “All parties involved acknowledged that the project was so successful because everyone had the same goal, was very willing to work through issues as soon as they arose and was quick to come to agreements and make decisions,” she said.Many students responded positively to the new installations. “There's a huge difference between my prep year and now,” senior Laura Zawarski said. “Internet was really a burden, and now it’s not so much anymore. I used to have to wait a half an hour tethered to the wall hoping to get into my email before 11 pm. The upgrade has been really great in my opinion.”Zawarski noted that, during her prep year, only one computer could be connected via an Ethernet cable at any given time and constrained to one room. “I do my best work in the early hours of the morning, and I can't imagine being stuck to the constraints I had prep year,” she said.In addition, many students appreciated an Internet network that can support various devices. In past years, Exonians struggled with unreliable connections.Upper Erick Friis valued the new system because it provided him with a greater overall accessibility. “Nowadays, many people have devices that do not have Ethernet ports, such as phones, tablets and ultra-portable laptops. With school-provided Wi-Fi, students no longer need to buy routers if they have Wi-Fi only devices,” Friis added.Though the availability of Internet in dorms has been largely well received, some students have noted significantly lower speeds. “The new dorm Wi-Fi is certainly convenient, but it's still too slow,” upper Wyatt Himmer said. “It can take excessive amounts of time to load anything during study hours, and you have to forget about Facebook or any other social media between 10pm and 11pm—everyone is online during that hour,”Despite the system’s preliminary problems, the overall transition from time-sensitive Internet to a 24-hour universally accessible system was a success.The new setup helped ease the previous disparity between students who owned smartphones, tablets and routers and those who did not. “I only experienced the 11pm Wi-Fi my prep year, but I remember that I didn't have an iPhone and my roommate did,” Movitz said. “While I would be forced to go to bed, she would stay up on her iPhone—working, listening to music and reading.”The impressive and speedy change to Internet availability across campus was an effective upgrade for many. “Now that the Internet is 24/7, I can do my homework assignments in whatever order I choose, whenever I choose," Himmer said.