Disciplinary Conditions

“Come on in,” Dean Cosgrove said, a wavering smile tugging at the corner of his mouth as he held the door wide open. I passed through, eyes fixated on the patterned carpet floor, clutching my jacket to my chest. I had waited in that cramped corridor outside The Exonian office for thirty minutes, watching student after student roam into that room and come out minutes later with the sad smile that indicated that their next two weeks would be filled with homework, sports and a sad 8 p.m. check-in. Stricts.

Now it was my shot, my shot at proving to the panel that I shouldn’t get stricts, that I had a reason not to. Sure, I am a prep, but stricts suck anyway (especially on the weekends). I sat down on a hard plastic chair and began to tell my story. The story of how I had been sick with health-center releases to prove it, how I had missed class because I had asthma, how I didn’t deserve stricts and was doing well in all of my classes. I finished, a crown of sweat glistening upon my brow and sat back, triumphant that I had conveyed what needed to win the case against stricts.

The four sitting at the table looked at me, asked a few questions, and then Cosgrove said, “Sure, if you can clear the dickeys by the end of this weekend, you’ll be fine.”

“Otherwise?” I muttered, the lump in my throat growing bigger.

“Otherwise, you’ve got stricts for two weeks.”

I left more bitter and sad than when I had entered. I ended up on stricts—on E/a weekend nonetheless—and trudged through the week of eight o’clock check-in, throughout which I was unhappy. I had convinced myself from the beginning of my sentence that my anger was stupid—a lot of people have stricts, so that must make it okay. For the first few days, I tried to clear my dickeys, but the health center wouldn’t budge, teachers were reluctant and the administration did nothing to hear my concerns. Soon I just gave up.

The tale of students getting stricts is quite common at the Academy, such a commonality in fact that trying to do anything about them is frowned upon. Meetings with the attendance committee (if the process gets that far) are supposed to be a few minutes, and attendees usually carry the expectation that they will be on stricts. Circumstance does not seem to factor in since tradition outweighs reason; that is the current system. After all, it’s only stricts.

I thought this mentality justified the disciplinary system here at Exeter, but I soon realized that this was not the case. I was perturbed by this nonchalance regarding minor disciplinary cases, not because I was victimized nor because I dealt with my sentence, but because at an institution as renowned as ours, the justice system is greatly flawed.

In any institution, there exists a mutual agreement between the managers (in this case, the disciplinary attendance committee) and the members (students) in which the members expect and receive a certain degree of justice. At Exeter, our attendance system, it seems, doesn’t well consider valid reason and sound argument, it fails to factor in student performance and is quite arduous to go through.

Let’s look at this piece by piece.

If the goal of the Academy stands to provide a conducive learning atmosphere, then its discipline system must listen to valid argument and sound reason. The Academy brushes off reason and argument. At my meeting with the attendance committee, it seemed as if I was wasting breath, striving for a goal I could never reach. My naivete as a new student is no more, and I now realize that I wasted my breath talking to the committee about my extenuating circumstance. But is that how it should be? Shouldn’t my requests and concerns be treated as such?

At Exeter, however, the opposite is true: we assume that because stricts are delivered, they are always justly done so with consideration, which is not nearly the case. Additionally, the discipline system here does not consider academic performance. If the goal of the Academy is to provide a world-class education to its students and a gauge of performance is grades, then it is assumed that students grades reflect their performance at the Academy. Hence, it is crucial that the attendance committee factor in grades.

The lack of regard for student concerns regarding minor disciplinary cases is not the only thing I see wrong with our attendance system. If we assume that grades reflect our understanding and comprehension (performance) in a specific class, then grades need to be factored into consideration when looking at attendance. I’m not implying that good grades always reflect hard-work and determination, but in most cases they are an indication of knowledge, and if the Academy’s goal is to teach their students, then knowledge is a crucial indicator of how well that job is being executed. Looking at grades in missed classes will allow the committee to make a more informed decision regarding the responsibility of its students and better choose when to deal out stricts.