Photo Illustration by Emma Richie

Lunch: the one time of day where students can relax, hang out with friends, and be themselves. But somehow, lunch is different this year.

It may be the ludicrous fact that we have 465 freshmen this year and less space to spread out at lunch. With as many new people coming in to Whitney this year, you might think the logical thing to do would be to expand the amount of space students have to roam the campus during lunch. But what does administration do? They cut down our space by a good 50 feet and pack us into a tight area including the amphitheater, near the gym, the cafeteria, and the near the library.

With so many students here and less than half of the campus to try to find reasonable space away from everybody else, it is almost impossible to find your own space. Last year, it seemed like there was no part of the campus to which we couldn’t go. That sure has changed.

I already know so many people who disagree with the school’s decision to lessen the students’ space. And the worst part about these new lines: the students (aka the ones who would be affected by the decision) were never even asked if they were okay with it.

Changing the boundary lines is like taking away more and more of our freedom as students as the years go on. And, the fact that we never were polled or asked for our opinion on the matter before it happened is a complete disgrace.

Again, it’s just a mental game played between the students and administration to test our maturity levels because they can’t trust us enough to let us roam the whole campus at lunch. I’m not saying that we should have an open campus for lunch, although that would be amazing, I just think that they should give us more credit for how responsible we actually are.

They cut off one more means of what we can call freedom at school, and it’s just one more part of our school life that they control.

Now that there have been budget cutbacks to staff, there are less people to look over the student body, but does that mean that we have to all be crowded into what feels like a 50 by 50 space? Sometimes, when you’re trying to get from point A to point B at lunch, you feel like you’re trying to walk through lines in Disneyland. And when the bell rings for the end of lunch, it’s eat or be eaten. If you don’t walk fast enough, you will definitely feel like you’re being trampled as a huge herd of elephants stampedes you from behind.

Either way, I think the students should do something about having our space taken away at lunch such as petition the administration, because personally, I would much rather have a lot more responsibility, more freedom and more space, than less responsibility, less freedom, and less space.

By EMMA RICHIE