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During the first week of Spring Break, Deerfield’s Advanced Dance Ensemble will journey to Jamaica. The trip will begin in Kingston, where the group will spend the majority of its time, and will culminate in Ochos Rios. Visual and Performing Arts Chair Ms. Jennifer Whitcomb said that Advanced Dance Ensemble member Taro Jones ’17, who is from Jamaica, “comes from a school there with a really vibrant dance program,” called Campion College, explained Ms. Whitcomb.Campion College is an academically successful, parochial institution, and Ms. Whitcomb cited Taro’s connection with the school as the reason for the ensemble’s trip. Ms. Whitcomb has maintained contact with the school for the past two years, in hopes of collaborating with them. While in Kingston, the Advanced Dance Ensemble will perform at a children’s hospital, will take master classes with prominent Jamaican dance teachers, and will also commission a piece from a famous choreographer, Marlon Simms, the creator of Jones’s piece in the Winter Dance Concert. “It’s going to be very dance-intensive,” Ms. Whitcomb said. When asked what aspect of the trip he most looks forward to, Jones  said, “I’m interested to see how these two groups interact, because I heard that we will be doing a collaboration… I think it’s going to be fun.” Advanced Dance Ensemble member Amelia Evans ’18 said, “I’m excited to be more cultured in the way I dance and the different styles I’ve been taught, and to work with a new choreographer.” Throughout the trip, the group will be immersed in a style of dance that developed through the convergence of European and African cultures. “Jamaica has an incredible dance scene that is not only contemporary, modern, North-American, but also Afro-Caribbean,” Ms. Whitcomb said. Jones concluded, “Different styles of music and dance have developed along with folk dance, and I think that experience with different styles of dance can help the dance ensemble be well rounded, and can give some ideas for future dances.”

Deerfield alumnus Zibo Gao ’15 recently introduced his band, EVELINE, by way of social media. Earlier this month, the five-member band released their first two songs titled “Sail On” and “Those Shoes” on YouTube. During his time at Deerfield, Gao was well known for his musicality, especially on the violin. A prominent member of the chamber orchestra and music program at Deerfield, he had been studying classical violin since he was five. In an earlier issue of , he stated that to him, music is a form of connection: “I can feel the music really well. I can tell what the music wants to say to the audience.” A freshman at Columbia University, Gao met his band members, Sias Merkling (guitarist), Bruce Young (guitarist), Nick Greene (bassist), and Marco Starger (drummer), through a common interest in music. Gao had always hoped to start a band in college. When he found out that Starger was a drummer, the two of them decided to have a “jam session” together with another mutual friend. “Although our first jam session didn’t go well,” Zibo shared, “We decided to keep looking for guitarists and bassists.” After reaching out to Columbia’s community, they were able to finalize the group. Both “Sail On” and “Those Shoes” have been receiving positive feedback, with over a thousand views for each song. “It was surprising to see equal amounts of likes for both songs,” Gao reflected. “But at the beginning, people are mainly curious and compliment the effort, so we’ll see how professionals evaluate those songs.” The process of releasing their songs was not an easy one. The members had different visions for their songs and often had arguments due to their different personalities. Additionally, Gao said, “Columbia didn’t have a practice room or even a drum set. Most of the time, we just practiced in our dorm rooms.” The most important asset that has helped the band’s vision come true is their secret sixth member, Paul Chang. Chang, who is in Gao’s Music Humanity class, is the producer of the band. “One day, I found out that Paul was actually a professional producer back in Korea,” Gao explained. The band recorded their songs in Chang’s dorm room, which is designed like a mini studio. They used a program called Logic Pro to edit the tracks.        “[Chang] is no doubt the most talented musician I’ve ever met, and without him, the band would never be where it is right now.” Although Gao has been devoting much of his time to his band, he still continues pursuing his passion for classical music. Currently, he is part of Columbia’s orchestra and plays in a Rachmaninoff Piano Trio. Gao explained, “Although I do prefer playing in the band, because it has more liberty and interaction within the team, the complexity and depth that classical music has is incredible.” Gao’s piano trio plans to perform at Carnegie Hall, one of the most prestigious performing arts centers, on April 16th. Gao stated that “messing around in [Deerfield’s] music studio” helped him not only with songwriting but also with producing his own songs.  Gao hopes that Deerfield students take advantage of the facilities and opportunities at DA: “Deerfield provides you with everything you need before you come out to the real world and experience real problems,” he explained, “So make sure you make the best of it.” EVELINE is currently working on an EP album, which will be released in early April, and recently won Columbia’s “Battle of the Bands” competition, which means they will be performing at at one of Columbia’s biggest spring concerts, Bacchanal, where artists such as Macklemore and The Chainsmokers have performed in the past. Gao concluded, “I’m excited to see how the band will mature.”

Relationships and sexuality have been part of an ongoing conversation at Deerfield for the last several years, and the administration has made strides to encourage healthier relationships in the form of date nights and more open conversations about parietals policies. However, it seems to me that an important component of this conversation—how pornography affects the relationships between genders at Deerfield—has been ignored. Like race, sex and porn aren’t exactly topics most students are comfortable talking about. While the subject of pornography occasionally popped up as a topic during late night weekend talks in boys’ dorms, regular discussions about it were non-existent until the arrival of Dr. Gina Barreca this fall, during which she lamented how the prevalence and extreme nature of internet pornography has changed the way young adults view sex and relationships. While a large percentage of the boys in the community shrugged off the notion, I don’t think Dr. Barreca is that far off. Much has been said about Deerfield’s gender divide and unnatural hookup culture, but it seems to me that we’ve been addressing the symptoms instead of the root causes of these problems. Porn is an undeniable presence on campus, and it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Porn perpetuates sexist and racist stereotypes (submissive Asian women, muscular and well-hung black men forcefully dominating women), and exposes its primary demographic—young men—to a version of sex that throws sincere connection and passion out the window. Internet porn is all about dominance and male pleasure; the female is there to please the male. Much like the fast food industry, it’s cheap and might not be all real, but it’s fast and near instantaneous in its ability to satisfy one’s cravings. Herein lies the problem: porn conditions its consumers to want more ways to satisfy themselves, and it starts to affect societal expectations for sex and relationships. Deerfield’s hookup culture is perfect evidence of this, with its focus on getting what you want from someone and having minimal relations beyond that. Relationships have been commoditized, stripped of the “hard parts” (getting to know someone, sharing mutual interests) and prioritizing physical attraction above all else. While this can sometimes lead to long term, healthy relationships, hookups often burn out after a certain point, if not immediately after the initial event. The worst part of the commoditization of relationships is the implicit commoditization of women on campus. Women in porn often have bodies that are hyper sexualized and “perfect,” with improbable figures designed for the male gaze. Due to porn’s pervasiveness on the Internet, this false ideal gets carried over to expectations for real women, as well. While talking about girls in guys’ dorms has been around as long as the equivalent in girls’ dorms, it strikes me that the conversations in guys’ dorms tend to be much more graphic. While my female friends have described how nice a guy might be, or how he has an attractive face or personality, many guys I know on campus tend to focus on girls’ bodies, as opposed to their personality or interests. This false expectation for women to have bodies like pornstars, paired with other negative perceptions of women such as slut-shaming and the like, ultimately create a situation where everyone loses, but especially the girls and women of the school. The media we partake in does have an effect on how we think, and in order to have better conversations about the place of gender and sexuality at Deerfield, we need to acknowledge that it’s on us, the boys and men of the Academy, to seriously think about how we value the girls and women we share this place with.

If there is one word to describe boarding life universally, it is consuming. This is not necessarily negative; in fact, the consuming nature of boarding life is often what makes it so successful. Living with the people you go to school with fosters stronger relationships. Seeing your teachers during meal times makes communication easier. Being around a community of people engaged in various activities, with concerts and games and performances happening constantly, makes it difficult not to find yourself involved in such activities. But engagement in boarding life can come at a cost. Having strong relationships with boarding school friends makes it harder to maintain relationships with people outside of school. Being engrossed in studies and activities is beneficial, but it leaves little time to go out with friends, hang out in your room, or just waste time. Being far from one’s family may teach independence, but it also leads to missing out on quality time. As a weekday boarder (I go home almost every weekend), I have no excuse not to be engaged in the outside world. I can easily plan to go out with friends outside of school on the weekends or spend more time with my family. But because of the consuming nature of boarding life, I often don’t. It’s much easier to simply hang out with the people that you see five days a week than to make an effort and reconnect with old friends. It’s more tempting to stay at home and finish the pile of work you have than to go to a family gathering or birthday party. I’m especially sensitive to this problem, because Jordanian culture is rooted in familial relationships. It’s odd to most people that I only see my extended family once or twice a month, or that most of my neighbors don’t know me. It’s hard for me, too, when I see family and friends checking up on each other, when I know little about their lives. This problem certainly does not apply to everyone—I know many people who manage to maintain relationships and stay close to family even while boarding—and it also isn’t a boarding school’s fault. Nevertheless, it seems that, especially in my school, there is little effort to keep students engaged with the outside world. Simply going to the nearest town requires a set of permissions, and boarders have a limited number of times when they can leave campus during the week (and even on weekends for full boarders). Students have little interaction with other schools, and when there is, be it a basketball game or a debate competition, it happens at a time when other activities are also running. Boarding life is almost always engaging, but more effort needs to be put in to prevent that engagement from turning into isolation.

Dear Reader, I can’t believe I’m writing these words…but this is it! Throughout my time leading this past year, I’ve learned an unbelievable amount about myself and the students and adults on this campus. When I became Editor-In-Chief, I made it my goal to be real with the school—to avoid stories that merely rested on the surface. I’m proud of myself and the 2014-2015 editorial board for our relentless drive to publish stories that either sparked conversation on campus or provided new perspectives. I absolutely could not have accomplished what I did without Managing Editor Brooke Horowitch with whom I was blessed to work this year. Her passion for paired with her attention to detail made her my perfect partner in crime. I’d also like to thank the other page editors for their undying hard work and dedication to making our paper the best it can be. To the Advisors, Ms. Schloat, Ms. Brown, and Mr. Brown, thank you for being the best supporters I could ask for—we were so grateful for you every step of the way. I’m so pleased to announce that the new Editor-In-Chief, who will step into her role next month, is Perry Hamm. I know that Perry has a strong vision for the direction in which she wants to take this paper, and I’m confident that she and the rest of her staff will work to do whatever they can to accomplish that vision. I’m excited for her to begin the experience that I am now ending, and I know she will undergo an unbelievably rewarding amount of character growth in the coming year. My time as Editor-In-Chief has brought with it elation, frustration, passion, and empathy. Thank you to everyone who supported me throughout this endeavour—it was an absolutely surreal experience. I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity to lead , and I’m so thankful to the school for supporting the paper and seeing it as an opportunity to help our community grow together. In the past year, our school already has grown immensely, in terms of school spirit, inclusion, and more. Regarding inclusion, I, along with Board, would like to recognize and thank the school for its demonstration of support for the transgender community. We are so pleased to know that we live in a community that encourages everyone to be as open as they want to be in our community. To my fellow seniors: we’re heading into senior spring. Our days of glory draw closer and closer to an end each day, so make every moment count. I consider myself so lucky to have been a part of a class that made such a visible impact on campus and on the community in just one year. So keep your heads up, love each other, and make a memory out of every day you have left. We’re almost there! Much love to you, DA! Cheers, Bella Hutchins Editor-In-Chief

Deerfield students are stuck. We spend all week studying in the Pocumtuck Valley and have little opportunity to travel off campus each weekend. Yes, the administration provides shuttles to Greenfield on Friday evenings, but the scheduling forces students to either speed-eat dinners or spend hours at a local restaurant. Yes, students have the option to call local cab companies, but these cabs are often unreliable. Dean of Students Ms. Amie Creagh recently acknowledged this in a Daily Bulletin post: “Students are encountering problems with the taxi service in and out of Greenfield.  Security will not be able to offer rides, so please schedule your trip into town for another time.” Students should not be afraid to get stranded, so we need a better system. Perhaps the Student Planning Committee could coordinate more frequent bus trips or organize teacher driving volunteers. Also, reforming the no-car policy would allow students to go off campus and visit more than just Richardson’s or the Deerfield Inn. believes that day students should be allowed to drive boarding students of any age at any point in the year, like Brooks Academy students can. The fact that only senior day students can drive senior boarders for the final three months of the school year is unreasonable. If a new or improved system were put in place, students could visit local attractions and delicious restaurants in towns like Northampton and Amherst without paying $70 to an undependable taxi company. If the Deerfield administration trusts its students and wants them to explore areas outside of a colonial village, they should consider amending the Academy’s off campus policies and systems.

Juan Cabrera ’16 began singing in fifth grade, and music became a significant part of his life by the time he was a freshman at Eaglebrook. “I feel like it’s been a passion of mine ever since I was little. That’s really all I’ve ever been interested in,” Cabrera said. When Cabrera came to Deerfield as a sophomore, he became a member of the chorus and  the Mellow-Ds. His involvement in the music program increased in the 2014-15 school year, when he took on the vocal ensemble, the Honors Vocal Quintet, and travelled to Korea and Hong Kong for the first ever Deerfield music tour. Most recently, Cabrera has been leading the Mellow-Ds as a co-captain and singing in the cast of , the winter musical. Visual and Performing Arts teacher John Van Eps described Cabrera, saying, “Juan feels music on a very deep level; it influences everything he does. He loves all genres and has a great appreciation for history and the singers and music that came before him.” One of the unique challenges Cabrera has faced at Deerfield has been working with three different music directors in the last three years. Each director led the choral program in a different way, which required students to adapt to various types of music, such as traditional, classical, and pop. “I feel like being able to be versatile has helped me grow a lot as an artist,” said Cabrera. “When [Juan] sings with transparency of spirit and musical clarity, he can be quite expressive,” said Director of Music Daniel Jackson. He praised Cabrera as a “well-rounded individual with a hunger, passion and a drive for excellence.” Although preparing for frequent solos and group performances takes up most of his time, Cabrera also engages in other activities as creative outlets. He explained, “I really like painting. It’s a lot of fun. Poetry’s really cool, too. I’m in Mr. Stallings’ class, and it’s something that I also love doing a lot, which I only really found out this year.” Music, however, is undoubtedly what Cabrera loves most. “Singing is literally everything to me. I feel as though if I didn’t have my music and my singing, I wouldn’t be in the same place that I am today. It’s helped me through a lot because I’ve had something to turn to no matter what and I know that it will always be there for me,” he said. Cabrera hopes to pursue a career as a singer after leaving Deerfield. “I feel like with music, it’s always something I have to myself and it’s something I love with all of my heart. Being able to do that as a job and as a career, in my head, would be phenomenal.” The past three years at Deerfield have proved to be a time of immense growth for Cabrera as a singer. He said, “Now, I look at myself, and I’m actually pretty happy about where I am, and I feel like there’s only room for improvement.”

What is better than a back-to-back? A three-peat! On Wednesday, February 10, Deerfield’s boys varsity alpine ski team won The New England Prep School Class A Alpine Ski Championships for the third time in a row, and Deerfield’s girls team finished in a tie with Kimball Union Academy for ninth place. “The coaches are extremely proud of the team’s effort, grit, and resilience,” said Coach Marc Dancer. He added that the juniors and seniors on the team are experiencing their third championship in a row, and the boys ski team overall is experiencing its fifth in six years. Coach Dancer believes that the road to winning the New England Championship all started with the dry land training in December and the leadership of the senior captains Hunter Quigg ’16, Jean-Pierre Torras ’16, Nicole Piispanen ’16, and Mark DesLauriers ’16 that kept the team focused on capturing another New England title. The first race of the year was canceled, so the team only had three races to help them prepare for New England’s. The boys started New England’s off on a positive note with a seven-point win in the morning Slalom Race. Jack Cobb ’19, the top Deerfield finisher, came in third place, and Sevrin Sarachek ’17 and Griffin Sarachek ’17 finished close behind in eighth and 12th place respectively. In the afternoon, the boys battled to a third place finish in the Giant Slalom Race (GS), “The closest finish in recent memory,”  Coach Dancer said. Coming in fourth place, Cobb was again the best Deerfield finisher, and Sevrin Sarachek and Garrett Alexander ’19 also earned points. After giving away only two points in the GS Race, the boys team won the overall crown by five points. The girls earned ninth place at New England’s, with captain Nicole Piispanen ’16 finishing in 11th place in the Slalom Race, and Carolyn Melvin ’18 finishing in 24th in the GS Race. Aside from the championship, both the boys and the girls have “grown as a team in general and have gotten a lot closer,” Melvin explained. Looking forward, the coaches are extremely optimistic, because many of the younger racers contributed the most points at the championships. The whole team is hoping to push this momentum of winning into the next ski season helping them to continue the boys’ winning streak and improve the girls’ record even further.

Nate Chong ’17: DCs are very much like 800-pound grizzly bears. You know they exist, maybe you’ve heard stories, but you sure as hell hope that you’ll never come face to face with one. From personal experience, and judging by the general sentiment of those who have sat before the Disciplinary Committee, the fear-factor lies not with the matter of facing consequences, but rather with the amount of ambiguity and suspense that surrounds the punishment. I have faith that, as a cohort of mature young adults, the Deerfield community understands the need for repercussions and consequences. It is when these consequences are not clearly prescribed to corresponding infractions that we wonder and postulate on the extent of our punishment. The lack of information available for students regarding the specifics of disciplinary responses leads to a guessing game that borders on neurosis. Such speculations only worsen the mental stress that is placed on the student. Another aspect of DCs that is surrounded with contention is the amount of time that elapses between being informed of a hearing, the actual hearing itself, and the release of the verdict reached by the committee. Expecting a student to continue life at The Academy under the pretense that nothing has happened, when they have a DC scheduled in two to three days time is unfair. The amount of mental and emotional tax that such suspense places on a student is detrimental, and it is unrealistic to expect them to perform at regular standards while facing such circumstances. At the same time, no one wants to ask a teacher for an extension because of being “stressed about their DC.” Clearly, this would be uncomfortable for both parties. That is why I feel that DCs should be processed as quickly as possible. The emotional stress placed upon students between the time they find out about their DC and the delivered response should not be treated as part of the punishment, and thus should be as minimized as possible. Disciplinary responses to infractions of the rulebook are something that any established institution needs to uphold in order to respect the values and standards to which we set ourselves. However, let us remember that, like any aspect of Deerfield life, the disciplinary process retains “education” as its end goal. Let us strive to keep it that way. Nhyira Asante ’16: I am, unfortunately, personally acquainted with the disciplinary process here at Deerfield. My sophomore fall, I, along with another female student, was DCed for violating Deerfield’s open flame policy. After the incident, I met with a member of the administration who was quick to assure me that I would not be meeting in front of the Disciplinary Committee, despite rumors flying around that indicated the exact opposite. I chose to believe the representative of the administration, trusting that person to have a better understanding of my disciplinary status than my peers did. Soon after, however, I received an email with the details of the time and place of my hearing, and I was forced to accept that the rumors I had heard were more accurate than the information coming from the administration: I was being DCed. I don’t know why the representative misled me; maybe it was to get me to tell the truth, maybe the person was unfamiliar with the process, or maybe the person genuinely didn’t know that I would be getting DCed, but that untruth ultimately destroyed any confidence I had previously had in the Deerfield disciplinary system. I wasn’t really upset because of the DC itself, having accepted it as a consequence of violating the rules, but I was upset because I had been led to believe something that wasn’t true. At the time, it felt like a callous manipulation, the sort of manipulation used on criminals who commit serious crimes—and I knew that whatever I was, I was definitely not a criminal. I have heard this critique of the disciplinary system time and time again: reports of students being deliberately misled, or being made to feel like criminals instead of members of the Deerfield community, when they simply made a mistake. To err is human, and sometimes the disciplinary process seems to punish students simply for being human. I am not excusing my own actions, nor am I excusing the actions of those members of the community who have violated the rules, but I am criticizing the culture around disciplinary hearings—the culture that often results in rumours and distrust and that diminishes the communal harmony of our campus. This culture is further reinforced when the administration DCs students based on the word of other students. A lot of the resentment relating to the disciplinary process stems from the perception that the administration DCs students based on malicious reports from other students, otherwise known as narcing. This perception creates an environment of wariness and discomfort within the student body, and also leads to certain students being ostracised in the wake of disciplinary hearings, neither of which are good for the cohesiveness of our community. To help with this, a fellow Deerfield student  has suggested that student reports should be placed under the category of “community concern,” rather than that of a formal DC; this way, students who are genuinely concerned about their peers would be more comfortable sharing their concerns with adults in the community, and those students who “narc” on other students in order to hurt them rather than help them would be unsuccessful. I genuinely believe that this is one way in which the administration could promote both inter-student and student-administration trust. In my four years here, I have seen an erosion of the trust between the administration and the students—students don’t trust that the deans have their best interests at heart, and the administration doesn’t trust the students to follow the rules. Both this erosion of trust and the punitive rather than restorative nature of our disciplinary process run contrary to the values we strive to espouse here at Deerfield: our values of respect, honesty and concern for others. Any society that does not reexamine itself is a society not worth living in, and we would be doing a disservice to the Deerfield community if we do not take a good, hard look at the way we treat students who make mistakes.

As athletes come and go at Deerfield Academy, it is only natural for the performances of teams to fluctuate. Each sport has its highs and lows, and the graduating class often has a lot to do with each year’s success. The approach of new seasons signal a time to replenish the Academy’s athletic program, but two spring teams may struggle to replace the leadership of last year’s graduates. For the past couple years, the girls varsity crew team stood rather uncontested, winning two consecutive National Championships, so this year, the girls have a lot to live up to. All members of last year’s first boat are now alumnae, and now a less experienced group of athletes must compete in a challenging division. Deerfield has brought in Mr. Charley Sullivan to lead the girls as their new head coach. Coach Sullivan has directed men’s club rowing at the University of Michigan for the past 20 years; there, he  led the team to win the last eight national club championships and has put three rowers on the U.S. Olympic Team. Although the Deerfield squad is currently rebuilding, Coach Sullivan is optimistic: “Even championship teams, and perhaps particularly teams hoping to repeat as champions, have to [rebuild]. In my experience as well, the year after numbers of extremely talented athletes leave, teams can often be quite fast, since talented athletes who have been in second and third boats are actually quite ready to step up and lead. This is the sense I have of this year’s group of girls.” With the correct guidance, leadership, and hard work, the Deerfield girls rowing team aims to maintain the success and legacy left behind by the Academy’s crew veterans. The boys varsity baseball team is in a similar situation. Many players graduated last year, few PGs will join the squad, and Head Coach Michael Silipo’s retirement looms. Senior Captain Charlie Carpenter said, “This year, we are a young, talented team. We are looking for some of the younger guys to step up in important roles.” However, they are not without experienced leadership. Carpenter added, “We also have returners, who will play a crucial role, including Dylan Presnal, Drew Rapoza, and Beau Dana. We are really looking forward to the season.” As the winter term comes to an end, spring teams are already hosting practices. Preseason will further bolster team chemistry. Although the girls varsity crew and boys varsity baseball squads face a dreaded rebuilding year, both teams have new promise.

Nothing hurts more than losing to Choate. Every year, each team plays Choate at least once, but the games we never want to lose are the ones on Choate Day. This fall, Deerfield’s JV teams clearly dominated, while Choate’s varsity teams got the best of us. This fall, Choate published an article in their student newspaper, The Choate News, about Deerfield Day and included statistics from previous years. According to The Choate News on Choate Day, from 2000-2014 Deerfield’s fall teams have suffered 63% losses while only acquiring 30% wins and 7% ties. These statistics were logged from five high profile sports: varsity football, varsity girls soccer, varsity boys soccer, varsity volleyball, and varsity field hockey. To quote a boy from Choate’s senior class, as published in The Choate News, “We may need to invest in a new opponent sometime soon. D-Day is getting a bit sad. It’s like watching a car crash happen; it’s horrible but you can’t look away.” Indeed, our varsity fall athletic teams recently have been losing to Choate, but it hasn’t always been this way. Serena Ainslie ’16 attested, “Just because we’ve lost in recent years to Choate in the fall doesn’t mean that we haven’t had a competitive rivalry in the past 116 years. My cousins went here in the late 1990s, when we used to kill Choate in every sport.” Over the past 15 years, Deerfield has shown its spring athletic supremacy over Choate. As Zeke Emerson ’16, captain of the varsity football team, said, “Obviously, it’s been a tough past few years against Choate for the football team, but it’s always good to look forward to the other seasons, where we’ve seen much more success.” Although in the fall the Boars have been dominating Choate Day, what would a spring Choate Day look like? Many students want to create a Spring Choate Day to continue the tradition of a rival day and provide another opportunity for spectators to watch athletes perform Nina McGowan ’16, a member of the varsity lacrosse team, commented, “I think having a spring Choate Day would intensify the rivalry because the games would be much more competitive.” The results from DA vs. Choate spring sports show that Deerfield clearly dominates over Choate, winning a total of 69% of games while only losing 31%. These percentages are from seven varsity sports: varsity boys baseball (6-8), varsity boys lacrosse (15-1), varsity girls lacrosse (8-8), varsity girls softball (7-8), varsity girls tennis (14-2), varsity boys tennis (13-3) and varsity golf (9-2). Deerfield’s record against Choate in spring matches over the past 15 years is 72-32. Choate’s spring teams don’t stand a chance. Last year, Deerfield swept Choate in every sport except one.

At school meeting on Wednesday, January 11, Dean of Students Amie Creagh shocked many students when she raised concerns about a subject many at DA consider taboo—dating. It’s no secret that in our community there are limited options for “dates,” a problem Ms. Creagh believes prevents students from gaining an important high school experience. “In the real world people do [date],” Ms. Creagh said at School Meeting, “And that’s where you’re all headed.” Many students find dating at Deerfield to be almost nonexistent and believe that Deerfield relationships rarely reach a point in which students call themselves a couple. Although this issue has not been much addressed in recent years, Ms. Creagh noted that the community has spent time this year focusing on issues such as sexual assault, and believes it is important to pair this topic with discussions of relationships and dating. “We had Cindy Pierce here for sexual assault awareness and prevention, and I want to balance that message with those of healthy relationships. Be aware of the world around you: Sexual assault does happen­—particularly on college campuses—and it’s our job as a school to equip students with information and skills to help prevent them from being victims and passive bystanders.” She added, “At the same time, we want to promote healthy relationships and the skills required to build them. Knowing how to date is one of those skills.” Some students cite the high stress environment at Deerfield as a factor that forces the student body into a system of relationships often referred to as the “hookup culture.” Celine Kim ’17 noted, “With the busy schedules students have at Deerfield, and all our requirements, it’s hard to do normal dating stuff, so we [resort] to the hookup culture, and couples tend to fall into that instead of solid relationships.” Others attest to the infamous “Deerfield gender divide” as one of the main factors that prevents relationships forming past the level of a casual hook-up. Camden Kelleher ’18 noted, “There is a pretty prominent gender divide on campus, which generally leads to couples only staying together for a month or two, because there isn’t really a connection between the couple.” In the past year, the administration has taken steps to create more open common rooms, hoping to create additional spaces for people of all genders to spend time together. While students note the good intentions, many do not feel the execution has helped implement change. Katherine von Weise ’17 explained, “The Crowe has helped break the gender divide in the freshman grade, but not as much in returning grades, and has had little impact on the dating culture, only on friendships.” Following Ms. Creagh’s announcement, Deerfield featured its first ever “date night” on Saturday, January 8. The environment was low pressure and intended to help students bond with their peers. A crowd pleaser film, “Star Wars,” was shown in the Hess Auditorium, and concessions such as popcorn, candy, and drinks were provided. The feedback on campus from the “date night” has been very positive, and many students expressed excitement about the opportunity. Sophomore Brenna Hoar ’18 explained, “Date nights are a great way for students to spend time together in a way that resembles normal high school dating. There was a surprisingly large turnout, and hopefully more people [will] continue to attend date night in the future.” For future date nights, students hope to see other styles of dates such as game nights, outdoor movie nights in the warmer months, and perhaps picnic style dinners. Looking to the future, Ms. Creagh and the Weekend Activities Committee plan to make “Deerfield Date Night” a twice-a-month occurrence, allowing students opportunities to go on dates more frequently, whether it be a movie in the Hess, or perhaps dinner for two in the dining hall. Ms. Creagh shared how important the initiative is to her, saying, “I want to make it something of a graduation requirement… I’d like our students to graduate with two years of lab science, and the math requirement, and, hey, you must know how to ask someone on a date, please.” Von Weise noted that in order for these date nights to be successful, and for dating culture here at Deerfield to finally change, the students really have to buy in. While the student body is grateful for the administration’s active approach in creating a dating culture here at Deerfield, Von Weise explained, “The dating culture at Deerfield will be hard to change from a faculty stance … It can only really be changed if the students choose to do so.”