Tips for Awareness

Some people order take-out five times a week. Others have never done it during their Exeter career. But no matter the frequency of orders, one should always tip the delivery person, a conventional practice that seems to have unfortunately escaped the minds of many Exonians. Gratuity is not so much a kind and benevolent act as it is an expectation. It is a shame that many students of the Academy are refraining from doing so, and it illustrates Exonians’ lack of courtesy and generosity towards the people of Exeter.“Most of these people’s paychecks are based on the tips they receive for food delivery,” Dean Arthur Cosgrove wrote to the student body in an all-school email. In addition to this, many of these workers must pay for gas from location to location, which can be quite expensive these days. These people receive a rather large part of their salary because of tipping, so it is only fair and right that we give them a few dollars along with the price of our meal.Let’s be honest, no one refuses to tip because they can’t afford it. It is, after all, only a couple dollars. If you can afford to buy a meal outside of the dining hall plan, then you can also afford to tip someone. But if you are not willing to tip someone then it is best not to order in the first place. Although tipping is technically voluntary, it is not an extra cost but really part of the original price.Most egregious of all the gratuity problems here is that Exeter is an institution that prides itself and its students on being “non sibi,” or not for oneself. We always talk about how the Academy fosters this sense of character and the idea is that you leave here a more generous, aware and caring citizen of the community. If this is true, it is outrageous that so many students knowingly ignore the needs of other hardworking citizens of Exeter. Tipping is such an easy task that makes the society we live in slightly better and more functional, but this idea still does not persuade many Exonians to do the right thing and tip the delivery person.This problem, collected with others, is deserving of more than a single email sent out to the students. Coupled with biking fast across roads and not waving for the cars, it illustrates our general lack of respect for Exeter and the people that live in it—it questions if we are really “non sibi” students, and this is something that should be addressed with haste and diligence.To fix this ongoing trouble, a dean or Mr. Hassan, as they usually do when there is a campus-wide situation, can address the student body face-to-face before an assembly. Alternatively, we can reinstitute Community Action Day, upgrading it with multiple workshops that actually benefit the Exeter citizenry. But as long as we don’t tip delivery people and don’t wave our hands when crossing the road, many residents of Exeter will hold on to the belief that we are condescending, unappreciative students, even if it may not be true.