The majority of all-school council election speeches this year guaranteed a surge of Y-chromosomes on campus. Naturally this is an extremely appealing offer, but it does come with a catch. Not only does this promise sound unlikely and impractical—let’s be honest, how many urinals are we going to have to add if we suddenly have teenage boys on campus all the time—but it also goes against all that we expected when we opened up our acceptance letter, adorned with purple sharpie doodles and glitter, and started living and breathing in an environment where we can be ourselves while studying our hardest, all without the distraction of boys.

Marlborough School… girls only. Think of a single-sex X-Men-type of school (we practically have super powers), without the boys—all of the boys. We know that we can get away with our unusual fashion choices because, as a population of only girls, we don’t care, and since no members of the opposite sex are present to impress, we don’t even bother. We signed up for this all-girls environment, so why are we promising Newly Added, Freshly Picked Boys?

The UltraViolet appreciates the gesture. It sounds doable and fun to integrate boy bonding time with community service, allowing us to see the others more frequently than just at dances or parties. However, let’s not get carried away here. It would truly be a shame to incorporate boys into our drama productions, stripping talented girls of their leading roles and ourselves of the joy experienced when we see our schoolmates in drag. Some things we do only work because we don’t have boys around. Spirit week would be dramatically different if we had boys watching us lip sync to different pop songs, while we dance around the gym in the skimpiest of clothing. Discussing sexual themes that come up in English classes would be significantly more challenging to do, and the class would have to pause and resume repeatedly due to distractions instigated by the boys.

Separating when we have boys and when we don’t is something that Marlborough girls love; it allows us to be ourselves. Bring on more outside of school activities (even if they have to do with school), but while we’re working, please let us be.

We’re practically X-Women, so let’s continue being super. Let’s work towards having more casual events like movie nights with boys and stay away from any drastic ideas. Boys may be important, but so is being rational.