As another year begins here at Marymount, the Class of 2017 noticed an unprecedented number of changes to traditional components of student life.  Students were shocked upon hearing the news about banned club sweatshirts, the replacement of our original pleated skirts with skorts for incoming students, and the remodeling of the library, which has resulted in an extreme lack of study spaces on campus; however, the most impactful surprise was the dismantling of the traditional locker system.

Marymount has traditionally been comprised of locker areas for each class, but this year a new system assigns every locker in the school alphabetically, assumably to accommodate the remarkably large new freshman class. In this new system, students’ ability to commune with classmates from their respective grades when they go to their lockers was eradicated. Additionally, some seniors, who have waited their first three years at Marymount for the most convenient lockers in front of Butler, have been assigned to lockers in Freshmen Courtyard.  

The seniors view this change as the stripping of a special rite of passage.  In the footsteps of every class before them, the Class of 2017 used lockers in Freshman Courtyard when they were freshmen and behind Butler when they were sophomores and juniors. However, upon finally reaching the culmination of their Marymount careers, many seniors were designated to the same lockers used as freshmen.  Many seniors have opted not to use their lockers at all because it is inconvenient to have their books located so far from senior courtyard, where they almost always sit.

In addition, the change has led to confusion about and a breakdown of the traditional seating patterns at Marymount. Each class maintains their own courtyard, which were generally convenient to the prior locker system; though these courtyard designations are technically unofficial, they are a well-known tradition that fosters class spirit and bonding, especially during lunch times when the whole grade is in one area. Although the Class of 2017 is extremely excited to welcome the class of 2020 to the Marymount family, it is anticlimactic to have finally earned the right to sit in Senior Courtyard and use the senior lockers only to find that underclassmen are enjoying the same privileges. In turn, if underclassmen enjoy these privileges so soon into their high school experience, they won’t get to experience the same excitement and anticipation towards the simplest pleasures of senior year.