As you may know, Hunterdon Central has recently revised its cross-campus policy*. In the past, students were given an extra three minutes to arrive at a Block 2 or Block 4 class when traveling from farther parts of campus, provided they had a pass stating which room they came from. That extra time is needed now more than ever, as this year, our passing time was shortened by one minute. However, earlier this year, Hunterdon Central revised its policy to permit students to leave Block 1 and/or 3 early. This allows students to arrive at their next class on time, rather than requiring them to arrive late. The purpose of this was to allow every student to be present for the beginning of the lesson. However, it seems that students have mixed feelings about the new cross-campus passes.
The majority of students seem to dislike this new policy. Isabella G. says, “If I’m being honest, the cross-campus passes are useless. I barely make it to class before the bell rings, even though that was the whole purpose. Plus, for the first ten minutes of class, we don’t do anything anyway.” Since teachers don’t begin class exactly when the bell rings, students agree that the new cross-campus passes aren’t fulfilling their intended purpose. “If I’m being honest, they don’t really have much impact,” says Aiden G., “most teachers give us a couple minutes to settle in anyway.” Although the idea behind the new cross-campus passes worked in theory, students agree that the policy change was ultimately ineffective. Connor S. explains, “… students miss their previous class’s conclusion in favor of seeing the beginning of instructions they might have missed.” If we assume that all instruction time will begin the second the bell rings, it makes sense to try and ensure every student makes it to class on time. In reality, teachers do not start teaching immediately. Students who arrived late due to crossing campus in previous years did not typically miss much (if any) instruction time.
Additionally, many students are still arriving late to class due to their requests for cross-campus passes being denied, which defeats the purpose of implementing this new policy in the first place. An anonymous source says, “It’s completely unfair to only allow certain groups of classrooms to get them [cross-campus passes] because some people don’t ‘qualify’ for a pass and then get in trouble for being late to class. Personally, I think if you’re going from one building to the other, regardless of the classroom, you should get a pass.” Many students share this sentiment. Due to hallway traffic, poor weather, or lost time spent packing their belongings,, the trek from one class to another is sometimes simply unachievable for students in merely seven minutes. Another anonymous source points out, “It seems pointless to change the whole schedule to give class two to three more minutes when people are leaving early during that added time.” The decrease in passing time has been an issue for many students, and many students spend the extra two minutes of class walking to the other building anyway.
Other students have shared that having to leave class early is arguably worse than getting there late, as many teachers keep teaching until the end of the block. Some believe that they miss more valuable class time with the new policy than the old one.
However, while many students are passionately against the new cross-campus passes, a good number of students don’t require any cross-campus passes and therefore have no opinion for or against them. “It hasn’t really affected me much,” says Sam G.
So, how do students feel about the new cross-campus passes? A large majority of students show their blatant dislike for the policy itself. Some students remain completely unaffected by the change. But it seems that few to no one in our student body actually supports this policy. If the policy were to go back to how it was before, I doubt many, if any, students would be disappointed.
*Editor’s Note: The new cross-campus procedure was introduced as the preferred method of teachers. Many had expressed they preferred students to leave early than arrive late, as more unstructured time to complete work was typically reserved for the latter half of the block, whereas instructional time was typically in the first half.
