Lunch Policy Makes Ill Timed Return
September 25th, 2002
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Principal Stanley Teitel recently stated that entry to and exit from Stuyvesant during lunch is once again restricted to the beginning and end of a period. This inconvenience is not the greatest problem most students face, but they should not have to face it at all.
Hallway cleanliness, a pet peeve of the administration, is the primary reason for the policy. Teitel said he wants “no picnics on the grand staircase” and to curtail rodent infestation. His reasoning is that unless students are forced to stay outside for 40 minutes, they will bring lunchtime filth inside. This is nonsense. Pizza takes five minutes to eat, and security guards have prohibited food from entering Stuyvesant since time immemorial. Ironically, the new lunchtime policy prohibits the very activities the administration presumably endorses, such as post-burger hallway study sessions, and guidance, grade, and college advisory meetings. According to SU Vice President Michael Litwack , the policy is only a trial, and will be evaluated at the end of October. Students therefore have that much more reason not to litter in the next few weeks, in order to persuade the fickle administration. If that’s not enough, the sight of freezing students being locked out of their school on a December day—and the sound of their parents complaining—surely will. But if the SU is confident this is only a temporary measure,they may have another thing coming. Last year’s lunch policy was only repealed after months of pressure from the Student Union. For SU officials the time to act is now. |