By Ryan Straub ’18
Author: Ivy Miller
Investigative Journalism Reveals Secret Sem Tunnels
By Eli Idec ’18
Even at the lower school, I remember hearing stories about the mysterious tunnels underneath sem. Perhaps the most far-fetched was of a tunnel connecting the lower school all the way to upper school, but as a young middle school student the myths seemed like a possible reality. A few weeks ago while signing up for activities at the class meeting, I noticed one that caught my attention, the “Labyrinth Walk.” Without thinking I signed up, hoping I would finally get to the famed tunnels. Instead, we walked through a chalk “labyrinth” on back campus created by Mr. Pons. While the experience certainly was enlightening, it was not exactly was I had expected.
Intrigued, I set about find if there even were tunnels under the school. So, with the help of Mrs. Swaback, I got in touch with Benjamin Schall, the physical plant manager for Wyoming Seminary. Generously, Mr. Schall agreed to share a little information. According to him the “tunnels are only utility passages that allow utility lines such as steam lines to interconnect some buildings on campus.” While there is nothing “mysterious” about them these tunnels are still intriguing. Unfortunately they are “off-limits for access by students and most emplyees” according to Schall.
In an effort to learn even more about the tunnels, I asked Mrs. Swaback who has ventured into them before. She said that they were much bigger than she thought, and that it was very cool down there. “Some were very large and some were so narrow you had to squeeze through.” Although I will most likely never enter the tunnels, several other students have shown interest in exploring them. Maybe someday we will be able to convince the administrators to allow us to venture into the tunnels. Until then, they remain a mystery to the students of Wyoming Seminary.
Next time you are walking to class, pause and think: there just might be a tunnel underneath your feet.
New Schedule Test Run Leaves Many Hopeful
By Duncan Lumia
The ever-asked first bell question is in peril of extinction: “what kind of day is it today?” Of course, the possible answers flow through the mind with such ease, the letters having been pressed into the Sem student’s mind like the days of the week. But strange to think that, next year, the rising freshman class will spend their entire Sem careers alien to the letters T, L, E, or A-60 (to which many veterans might call “nap time”). The anticipated 2017-2018 schedule change is set to be a drastic change in school culture, but for better or worse? A winter test run of the 7-day alternating schedule sought to answer some of the many questions students and faculty had: “Will I really have more free time?” “What about lunch?” “Is change really all that necessary?”
Leading up to the test run, many students were apprehensive of what was to come. Many students enjoyed their routine. Afterall, they created it anyway. Fear grew that the new schedule would limit students’ opportunities to personalize their schedule. Some enjoyed setting aside time in the middle of the day knowing they could have a longer lunch. Others personalized their schedule to sleep in. On the other end, some students took 8th bell free to end the day early. This direct personal involvement in one’s own schedule was set to disappear with the new rotating schedule. Fundamentally, it was the lack of predictability that spurred many students to a fear of change. Sure, the new schedule might offer a student more free time in the morning on a certain, random time. But no longer can that student individualize their schedule to consistency.
These and other fears in mind, students prepared themselves for the great wave of change. However, very quickly, these apprehensions seemed to melt away. It was almost as if a set of shackles had been released from the ankles of those who took the same path to the same class at the same time, every day. Students like senior Gabe Pascal praised the “increase in variability” of the rotating schedule, a welcomed variety opposed to the military style of the old way. Many others like junior Eli Idec agreed, welcoming the change in class times as a “refreshment.”
Students around campus were eager to applaud the new schedule, especially for the free time it generates for social interaction and completing homework. Junior Olivia Meuser asserted that “I was so much less stressed than I usually was because I felt I had so much time to do stuff at school.” A great majority shared her belief, like sophomore Lucas Barnak who had “more time to unwind.” The longer lunch bell, too, alots more essential time for students to take a break from the rigorous academics throughout the day. Although, many students and faculty dreaded the idea of an all-school lunch period. On paper, it seemed to resemble a bell-5 lunch on steroids, but in testing it, a lot of community members found it agreeable. Meuser feared the lunch lines would be “terrible and chaotic,” but because there was so much time, she was able to “do homework and like, stuff.”
The schedule culture at Sem, to close, likens itself to Plato’s famous Allegory of the Cave. Knowing nothing other than the old schedule, students accepted it simply because it was there. However, after being exposed to a new reality during the test run period, the aforementioned shackles disintegrated. With it, the one-way mindset of the community vanished. Now, as students begin to marvel at the great positivity of this switch, in an area thought unchangeable until recently, what great dogma of the school may next be challenged next? The floodgates are open. There now exists a tremendous student awareness that there is possibility to change unfavorable aspects of the school. With something so very establishment such as the schedule now uprooted, what other ancient tenets of Wyoming Seminary are subject to scrutiny, and perhaps, dare it be said, change.