Town and Gown: A Case Against Going Full Boarding
TAYLOR HO/DEERFIELD SCROLL
In September 1902, Frank Boyden took over as headmaster of a version of Deerfield with only 14 students from local farmers. Within the local community, he promoted the idea that every child should have an education, and he invited more surrounding farmers’ children to Deerfield.
Over a century later, during the all-school meeting on September 30, 2026, Dean of Residential Life Lina Al Samawi and Associate Head of School for Student Life Amie Creagh introduced the plan for converting Deerfield into an all-boarding school. I, along with my peers, reacted with shock and skepticism. Deerfield, with more students, more resources and a larger endowment than ever before, seems to be closing the door Boyden opened to the local community.
The best part of my residential life as a freshman was living in the same dorm complex with everyone else in my grade. It created more accidental interactions, built shared identity and lowered social barriers when friend groups were still forming. Ms. Creagh acknowledged that “having the [freshman] contained in one building is a wonderful concept.” However, to not “limit or constrain wonderful kids because there’s only X number of rooms in that building,” she added, the school needs to add John Louis to the freshman village. In my opinion, separating the freshmen into two separate buildings weakens the sense of shared identity and shared experience.
Early in freshman year, students are more likely to become friends with people they repeatedly see; having two separated freshmen dorms not only reduces spontaneous encounters but also creates two social centers where students gather. I believe that by removing this common ground and creating geographical separation, the freshman classes in upcoming years will be more fragmented.
There are consequences for day students as well as freshmen. Day students are already a minority and this transition will only put them under more social pressure. Director of Communications Jessica Day describes the transition as “rolling;” the school will convert to full boarding by simply not accepting any day students to the Class of 2031. This means that the existing day student population will gradually shrink over the next three years until there are no day students left. I believe that during the transition, day students will feel more conscious of their minority status because fewer and fewer students will share the day student identity.
Additionally, unlike off-campus day students who will eventually be replaced by boarders after the completion of the rolling transition, faculty children will remain day students post-transition. Ben Soifer Hamelin ’29, whose mother works at Deerfield and lives off campus, said, “When I heard that all the faculty kids and employee kids were not [turning into boarders], that definitely hurt. And it’s kind of unfair to the faculty kids.” Faculty children will remain left out from the boarding experience with fewer students sharing the same status with them. This, according to Hamelin, “puts more social anxiety” on an even smaller number of students who do not have a choice.
Most importantly, transforming into 100% boarding will lead to a town-gown relationship — a distinction and separation of local college town residents (“town”) and the students and administration of the academic institution (“gown”) — directly contradicting Mr. Boyden’s original intention. Sue Carlson, a 25-year Deerfield dorm residential head, teacher and counselor, emphasized that, “in my recent interactions with people in nearby communities, people expressed a feeling of being ‘let down.’” They questioned how going full boarding shifts Deerfield’s position and relationship with the local community. In the past, Deerfield has maintained a healthy relationship with the local community through donations, partnership and charity. However, eliminating day students will change the texture of the connection from relational to transactional.
Day students create representation; the fact that the local residents have the opportunity to attend Deerfield while staying connected with the local community is important. According to Mrs. Carlson, the local community cares about “the feeling of being represented, impactful and valued by the institution.” Day students’ bridging role is unquantifiable, but merely having them makes the local community feel accessible rather than sealed off. Subsidizing the neighborhoods but cutting off their input will trigger and escalate the town-gown relationship.
The Hotchkiss School, on the other hand, strategically maintains its 96% boarding school percentage without turning into 100% to keep a door open to the local community and families. Hotchkiss Dean of Student Life Andrew D’Ambrosio said, “That small percentage signals something about who we are: a boarding school with deep ties to its region, rather than one that simply happens to be located here.” He added, “We believe the residential experience is at the heart of a Hotchkiss education, and that it is strengthened, not diluted, by the presence of students whose lives extend beyond our campus.”
Deerfield leadership has clearly communicated the benefits of becoming a 100% boarding school: “it makes sure everyone has a full Deerfield experience,” said Ms. Samawi. However, who defines what a “full Deerfield experience” looks like? Neither the school nor the students have the right to define a “full Deerfield experience” solely by themselves. For students still defining their “full Deerfield experience,” understanding that Deerfield is intertwined with the local communities is equally important as having an immersive residential experience. To me, not becoming exclusively boarding is a constant reminder of where we came from, who we are and what it means to be worthy of our heritage.