Shortly before winter break, Interim Upper School Division Head Regina Rosi Mitchell and Director of Middle School Sean Fitts sent an email to the community expressing concern over the lack of cleanliness in a number of shared spaces around campus, especially the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. According to Rosi Mitchell, students have not only been littering and leaving food around the school, but also damaging and breaking a variety of items, including one of the Steinway & Sons grand pianos.

“The CEI is meant to be a community space, and I actually have the belief that learning is supposed to be messy,” Rosi Mitchell said. “If there are supplies everywhere and Post-Its on the wall, it indicates that creativity was in motion. What we’re talking about here isn’t a regular mess, but a blatant disregard for our facilities.”

One of the CEI’s policies is that students are not allowed to bring food past the Café area, communicated through signs throughout the space with slogans such as, “Smash the patriarchy! But not your food into the carpet.” This policy was implemented to avoid attracting insects and to prevent stainage and spillage on the carpet and furniture. However, students have been eating in the CEI regardless, and Rosi Mitchell described regular sightings of sticky plates, chocolate chip pancake remnants and spilled coffee, which creates extra work for the facilities staff. Additionally, students standing on top of CEI desks and furniture has possibly resulted in several instances of broken furniture.

Fitts talked about how this disregard for discipline has negatively impacted  the facilities staff.

“Students assume other people are picking things up, which isn’t true, and creates more work for our facilities staff,” Fitts said.

Students have also expressed concern over finding clean places to work within the CEI.

“When the CEI is dirty, I don’t feel like I want to work there,” Yuma ‘24 said. “It’s disgusting to touch other people’s messes.”

In response to the students’ lack of discipline, Rosi Mitchell and Fitts made the decision to close community spaces such as the CEI and the Caswell performance corridor after 6 p.m.

“I don’t feel comfortable with the idea of students being alone when there are no teachers around,” Rosi Mitchell said. “However, we’re open to changes, and if a family reaches out and says that they really need a space to work after 6 p.m., we’ll revisit that policy.”

Ultimately, Rosi Mitchell said that she hopes that students hold each other accountable and act according to school values.

“We’re so fortunate to spend our days on this beautiful campus,” Rosi Mitchell said. “By being here day in and day out, we are so used to it, but it’s on all of us to not take it for granted. It’s on all of us to care for it.”