In the recent meetings of Day-to-Day committee, a new issue has come up about the state of our student lounge. Students have not been: cleaning up after themselves properly; using headphones on computers, mp3 players, and other noise making devices; restraining themselves from PDA, sitting with the appropriate amount of people on couches; and, respecting Melissa and other authority figures when they’ve been asked to stop these activities. These are all very serious offenses and clearly examples of unacceptable student behavior, but if everyone’s being honest, these are not activities Nova students have engaged in exclusively in the lounge.

I’ve witnessed trash and disgusting leftover meals pile up around my ankles; my classmates engage in graphic PDA; and makeshift dance parties form around a speaker regularly as long as I’ve been here. All we do by shooing these offenders out of the lounge is force the problem to find a new home. Already this year students monopolizing the limited space in our narrow halls has been more of an issue than ever before, and if the lounge is taken away and another public space isn’t provided, we will exacerbate this issue to a boiling point. The lounge undoubtedly can become a disaster zone with the current social norms that are in place, but by turning it into a study space, we only shift the negative effects of the problem to a different and clearly wider audience. The lounge is currently the place in our school where it is easiest to step in and see the culture of entitlement and disrespect that exists in our school today.

This is a fact that was acknowledged by the members of Day-to-Day, and an unofficial proposal was put forth to bring back Respect & Responsibility committee as a possible solution. I brought this notion back to Adam’s coor where  it received a warm response. Two elder members of Adam’s coor – Travis Hare and Tony Sueiro -  attended Nova before R & R committee was disbanded, and they both believe Nova could benefit from the return of some form of the committee.

“I feel like in the time after R & R, discipline at Nova has fallen solely to the teachers, and it’s become a much more formal and ineffective system,” commented Travis.

Tony added, “I’ve tried to call out students when they’ve been disrespectful [a practice that is is supposed to be socially acceptable in our community] and I’ve been laughed at for even trying it.”

The formal disconnect that has been created by teachers handling discipline is the backbone of this epidemic of disrespect at our school. If a committee is formed that stresses dialogue and solutions for students instead of straight up punishment, we create the opportunity to inspire more personal accountability amongst students. The main concern that was raised by Adam’s coor was what most governing committees end up turning into – the same five to six people deciding the fate of all the offenders at Nova. However, a brilliant solution to this problem was proposed.

In a system similar to jury duty, each nova student could be required to attend R & R on a rotating schedule. There would obviously need to be some permanent members of the committee, but to avoid bias, voting privileges would be restricted to non-permanent members. If we as a school can successfully return to a healthy environment where students are able to hold each other to a higher standard than what we’ve come to expect in the lounge, then we should all be able to use the lounge as a study space without making any policy changes. Taking drastic measures like banning students from the lounge and designating it as a study space are defeatist steps that don’t acknowledge the true root of the problem. The face of Nova has changed for the worse, and a new and reformed R & R committee may be the answer.

For a different take on this issue, read Pro: Why the Nova Lounge Should Also be a Study Space