Administrative Anxiety

When Philip Chang ‘15 questioned Principal Hassan’s lack of vision as it affected students decisions to enroll or not to enroll at Exeter, Michael Gary, director of admissions, responded that in the past few years, Exeter has "experienced its lowest admit rate, highest yield and seen the largest number of top quality students enroll." Mr. Gary then explained that "much of this can be attributed to his emphasis on providing many more global opportunities for our students and faculty, an emphasis on community connections and improved facilities." While we don’t have any data to dispute the statistical information about admissions and yield, in our view, the notion that global opportunities, community connections and improved facilities contributes to higher yield rates and top quality students does not hold true.Neither of these three programs or ideas are specific or special enough that they would be the reason that top quality students choose to apply to or attend Exeter. Many schools with enough resources pushes for global opportunities; we do not believe that those opportunities are unique to Exeter, and we don’t believe that students choose Exeter because of those opportunities. Further, the influence imparted on the student body by global opportunities is limited, for the most part, to the few students who have gone on these new global trips. That number only constitutes about a third of the student population, and discussions of those students trips with students who did not attend them are limited or almost nonexistent.The idea of community connections is too vague to have any meaning. Does community connections mean within the Academy community or beyond? Does it include the community of the local town? How are these connections even established?Over the past few weeks, as the Principal Search Committee has come to campus, one of the most prevalent ideas with which students have come forth is the hope that there will be more interaction between the students and the principal, suggesting a lack of community connection there. If "community connections" refers to the Academy’s interactions with the Exeter community, the removal of Community Action Day from our schedule would indicate that those connections aren’t truly a priority of our school.We have a beautiful campus that is continuously renovated with endless resources that are constantly replenished. We are seriously blessed with world-class facilities, but those are but a loose skeleton of our school. True meaning, real lessons and influential memories are derived from our interactions and experiences with the people who fill the seats next to ours in dhall and the rooms across our dorm hallways. Our latest Elm Street Dining Hall renovation has solicited a series of varied responses, both positive and negative, indicating that the addition or renewal of physical facilities does not always create a net positive for the community. Even when our facilities can be improved with overwhelmingly positive support, they simply amount to the loose framework of our community. Harkness tables facilitate discussion, and dorms facilitate community, but the sparks we kindle in those environments are a direct product of the people and culture that fill the school. And that truly influences a decision in choosing a school.This response from Mr. Gary is emblematic of an administration that operates within a culture of anxiety, one that tries too hard to keep up appearances and is too worried about falling behind. An administration that, as a result, tries to trivialize dissent or disagreement. The extent to which the administration operates under a fear of losing ground in the sphere of elite education, in our view, has negatively affected the student experience.Our implementation of iPads comes from the fear that we will fall behind other schools in the technology sphere. Simple questions to the deans from Exonian reporters about fairly uncontroversial topics go unanswered, in our view, because they are afraid of how the school could be represented. Multiple faculty have commented on how difficult it is to receive straight responses from members of the administration. Many other faculty have stopped responding to questions from the Exonian because they’ve received backlash from the administration. How can Exeter operate as a community when there is little trust or openness between the administration and the rest of the community?These are not easy obstacles to overcome, but as a community, we should acknowledge that many of these "higher up" decisions that affect our community stem from an anxiety about how our school is perceived. Hopefully, recognizing that can open a discussion about how we operate as a community.