Coming In Early

Key Takeaways: 

• Benefits

  • Students no longer need to wait outside in the heat or cold.

  • Students will be less likely to be late trying to time leaving and coming back right.

  • Less hallway traffic.

• Implementation

  • We plan on meeting with Principal Yu and Assistant Principal Moran. 

  • We use two for exiting and two for entering instead of four at a time.

• Challenges

  • This policy has been challenged and rejected before.

  • There are concerns about health and cleanliness (trash).

• Solutions

  • We will inform students of our progress as it goes on.

  • We will propose a trial run to prove that our plan works and doesn’t impede on health and safety.

Background

          The Coming In Early policy encompasses the idea that students should be allowed to return to the building during their free and lunch periods, not just after the warning bell has rung, but throughout the entire period. However, this policy has been regarded as controversial in the past, as it is infamous for being immediately shut down in the Student Union whenever new administrations propose it. We believe that we can change this.

          Why are we different? We’ve made it a focus to contact and work with the administration to tackle these issues, namely Principal Yu and Assistant Principal of Security Moran. We’ve done our research gathering statistics and the history behind the policy to come up with a realistic approach. We are aware that it’s possible we won’t be the caucus that is able to pass this policy. Nevertheless, we believe that it is crucial to set up the groundwork and infrastructure for this policy so that a future caucus may be able to enact it. 

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Research

          Out of roughly 900 rising sophomores, we surveyed 135 of our peers. Out of those, roughly 71% of them, or 96 students, said they go out for lunch three or more times a week. A pie chart representing this data can be found below. A trend between these answers was that students went out less when it was cold or raining. Another common reason for these students not wanting to go outside was because if they left too early, they would end up waiting to be let back in, on the contrary, if they left and returned too late, they won’t get a chance to eat, and end up running to class. Many of these students reported that on days they don’t go out, they don’t eat lunch. In a school like Stuyvesant, known for its long days and stressful classes, how can we justify letting adolescents go hungry in fear of being late to class? 

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Benefits

          There are many benefits to enacting the Coming In Early Policy. As mentioned above, it will allow students to have more flexibility in the time that they choose to go out and have lunch, while also making sure that they have ample time to eat. While managing their time seems like something small that should be up to the students to work around, we believe that students should not be required to sacrifice their mental and physical health any more than they already do as Stuyvesant students. This flexibility may also offer students the opportunity to use some of their time to study or catch up on work, reducing the stress they may feel throughout the day.

          Furthermore, the enacting of this policy would not only reduce the congestion in the bridge entrance but also in the hallways during passing. This would then make it easier for the administration to plan for social distancing. Although COVID-19 will be over by the time this policy has a chance of being implemented, the health and safety of the students should always remain a priority. This is important, especially in a large school like Stuyvesant, where every 40 minutes, over 3000 students crowd the hallways, and those 3000 students often risk their health for their academics, whether that’s not getting enough sleep to study, or coming to school even when they are sick. With the Coming In Early Policy, we would eliminate unnecessary congestion of the hallways during lunch periods, as well as eliminating the risk of sickness spreading when students are crowded by the entrance waiting to be let in. 

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Implementation

          The implementation of the Coming In Early Policy is extremely straightforward. Normally there are four scanners pointing the same direction, all used for exiting students until the last five minutes of the period. We propose having one “in'' scanner and three “out” scanners for the first ten minutes because most of the traffic will be exiting. At the same time, we feel that it’s important to have one scanner for swiping in, in case of latecomers needing to come in. The middle twenty minutes will use two scanners each for each purpose, and the last ten will have three “in” scanners and one “out” scanner. This way there only needs to be one scanner flipped at a time, saving time while making sure students can both come in and out at all times. 

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Challenges

          This policy has received pushback and been rejected many times by the administration. This may have been due mainly to the risk of students bringing in food and not disposing of it properly, causing garbage and vermin to be strewn across the floor.

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Solutions

          However, it is clear that the solution to control this litter problem is not to stop students from entering the school at certain times, but rather to raise awareness about the effects of littering. So instead, we propose a quote-unquote trial week. A trial run, spanning from a week to a month, where students would be allowed to come in and out during their entire lunch period. In addition to this, to tackle the underlying problem of litter throughout the school, we will hang up posters in key locations, including the “half-floor,” in order to remind the students to properly dispose of their waste and the consequences of not doing so. If we are not able to properly clean up after ourselves, we will have not passed the trial run and there will be no excuse on why we deserve to come in early. This policy requires all the students to work together, keeping the school clean, for the benefit of everyone. 

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