StuCo Passes NewVisitations Policy

By  SAM ALTMAN, ISABEL EVANS and FORREST ZENG

      In response to an initiative by the current and former Student Council leadership, the faculty of the Academy recently voted to approve a landmark visitation reform, the first of its kind in decades.

      The new policy, set to begin as a pilot program for the class of 2025, grants more privacy to senior visitations starting in January each school year. With the approval of the faculty on duty, only a small doorstop in the door is required rather than the 90 degrees needed for the rest of the students. The reforms came after an extended and dramatic campaign by the 2023-24 Student Council. It started as a campaign for an entirely closed-door visitation policy and evolved into a multifaceted policy.

      “This policy gives the group of students we trust the most, the seniors, the opportunity to have more privacy in a very formative window of time,” former Student Council Vice President Will Soh said.

      Before the policy’s passing, student sentiment for visitation reform was not new. “Student Council has been working on Vs reform nearly every year for the past handful of decades. It’s always been something… from door angles to permitted hours, there’s always something in the works,” said former Student Council President Kevin Treehan.

      Treehan continued, “It’s no particular fault of the previous Executive Boards — I’ve been in Council since my prep year and served on one (last year as a co-secretary) that ran into the same roadblock as always. In the past, though, I don’t think most people had a good grip on what exactly they wanted and why they were fighting for it.”

      Former Student Council Co-Secretary Caspar Bailey described the student body’s desire for greater privacy during visitations. “The privacy that the former policy afforded just wasn’t enough in the eyes of the students, nor had it been for years,” he said. “Many executive boards attempted to pass a new policy before we did.”

      A similar policy at Phillips Andover inspired parts of the policy.  “One great success was our decision to work with Andover,” Treehan, who traveled down to Andover, said. “They’ve had a much more liberal policy (closed-door for seniors starting January) for decades. It’s a head-scratching thing that a school so similar to ours has found great success in something that doesn’t even sound like it’d get past the first minute in a faculty meeting here. Things like this are often dismissed — ‘Oh, they’re just different, and we don’t need to be like them’ — but I thought it might be helpful to get some boots on the ground and truly understand how they managed to do it.”

      The 2023-24 Student Council Executive Board’s concerted effort finally pushed the long-awaited policy to success. “Our top priority from day one was the visitation policy,” Bailey said. “We went on to draft a proposal to present to dorm heads. Although they narrowly decided against a closed-door policy, they voted in favor of a one-year pilot ‘door stop in door’ policy starting in January 2025.”

      The policy evolved throughout the process, according to Wheelwright Hall dorm head Brandon Hew. “Members from Student Council spoke with dorm heads on a couple of occasions this year,” said Hew. “The proposal was changed following these meetings and ultimately reached a presentation to the full faculty.”

      “There were a lot of little things we had to convince the faculty of,” Treehan said. “It was everything from where legal responsibilities lay to how the logistics of permissions would work. I think one great example is the vertical housing issue. Many faculty responded to the Andover precedent by arguing that Andover doesn’t have preps living next to seniors as we do. However, our research at Andover had made us realize that they did have lowers, uppers, and seniors in several dorms and that the policy still worked out fine.”

      Treehan continued, “After finding this out, we made sure to let each subsequent faculty we talked to know about that (it seriously helped). We also went back and got in touch with the more hesitant faculty we had already met with and reignited the conversation given the new circumstances. I think this is a great example of how this sort of persistent ‘friendly salesman’ approach served us well.”

      Although the entirely closed-door policy was changed to a wedge-in-the-door policy, the policy is still a significant achievement. “One minor setback was the rejection of a closed-door policy, but even that came with an equally significant accomplishment with the passing of the doorstop policy,” Bailey said.

      Current Student Council Co-Secretary Lauren Lee related, “I wish that the initial propolicy,” Bailey said.

      Current Student Council Co-Secretary Lauren Lee related, “I wish that the initial proposal with full closed doors had been passed. Unfortunately, that didn’t work, but I’m still pleased that the current policy passed.”

      “In terms of safety, my board has worked extensively alongside the administration, the Academy’s general counsel, and several other key figures in ensuring that the policy is intensely resistant in nature and practice to misuse. Its approval is testament to that — indeed, we were only one or two votes away in the dorm head process from getting fully closed-door Vs approved,” Treehan added.

      Historically, visitation reform of this kind has failed to make headway due to the potential of sexual intimacy during closed-door visitations. The Executive Board successfully reframed discussions to be about maturity and privacy. “One great thing that the 2023-24 Executive Board did was emphasizing that intimacy isn’t just romantic or sexual,” Lee said. “We’ve realized that it’s necessary for people to build up as they reach adulthood—that is, forging close friendships and getting to know others on a deeper personal level.”

      “Overall, this is also a huge improvement to student life,” Treehan commented. “Things that students couldn’t do as easily before — from trying on dresses, to having those really intimate conversations, to just feeling like you don’t always have a pair of eyes watching everything you do — now, we have more latitude to do that.”

      Treehan spearheaded the campaign, authoring the “Visitations Manifesto,” an extensive document intended to inform students about the proposal.

      “When we decided to go after it, we took a week or so to puzzle over how we wanted to approach it. We prepared a slides presentation, presented it to the school at the opening StuCo assembly, and subsequently a faction of the trustees in the following week. We got a lot of feedback from both camps and incorporated them into the Visitations Manifesto that was published in late autumn,” Treehan said.

      “While drafting a proposal to the dorm heads, we were also educating the student body about the proposal with the Visitations Manifesto,” Bailey described. Treehan also met with Andover students and faculty in person to learn more about their visitation policy.

      The question on the minds of students and faculty now is how the new policy will be implemented. The new Executive Board plans to monitor the policy through dorm reps and senior reps. “We’ll try to monitor the effectiveness of the policy and see how seniors feel about it,” Lee said. “After, we’ll circle back and see if any more changes should be made.”

      Lee also noted, “We have an idea of the Student Council providing standardized doorstops to prevent any backlash from faculty who might find people using small door stops to evade the policy.”

      Upper and incoming senior class president Ava Helbig discussed her view of the new policy, “I believe the new policy will begin in January 2025 — as class president, my main concern is that if someone from my class abuses the change, it’s over for everyone. I think next year’s seniors must be aware of the privilege they have. I know that I, even though it’s not my job to represent every single one of them perfectly, will ensure that I follow the rules and set a good example for the grade.” As the first class to experience the new policy, there is a responsibility placed on the class of 2025 that determines the future of this policy, and its continuation is dependent upon its responsible use.

      Hew noted ambiguity regarding how the process would be administered: “I’m not entirely sure other than having to knock and enter during these new visitations.” He continued, “I have not yet decided whether I will place any additional expectations on them, for example, ‘doorstop V’s for only groups of X number of people or more in a room, no doorstop V’s, etc.’”

      Overall, this represents the Academy’s progress in giving students increased privacy, trust, and safety. Many have high hopes for this new policy. Hew shared, “I hope it is a positive change for seniors. I hope preps, lowers, and uppers are not alienated as a consequence of not being able to partake in the doorstop visitations.”

      “I think that having this shoe-in-the-door policy is going to allow for a lot more privacy and growth for seniors and other leaders on campus,” Lee said.

      Treehan concluded, “It speaks to the fact that when the students come forward with a unified voice, the faculty are ready (eager, even) to sit up and take notice. I’m thrilled that the Council and the Academy community collaborated to deliver this quality-of-life improvement.”

Note: Lauren Lee is a staff writer for The Exonian.