Milton presents itself as a unified community of day and boarding students; the school takes pride in how these two distinct communities learn, play, and thrive together. The new dining policy announced this week, however, risks marginalizing the day student experience. I strongly urge the administration to reconsider excluding uninvited day students from the required boarding sit-down dinner on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
In a September 14 email titled “Dining Philosophy and Dinner Logistics,” the administration announced that on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6:00–6:45 p.m., Forbes Dining Hall will close to uninvited day students while boarding students will share sit-down dinner with their dorm communities. The announcement describes this policy shift as “a long-standing residential life tradition” that gives boarders and dorm parents dedicated time to connect, and the school calls the dinners “a uniquely valuable part of the boarding experience.”
The goal is understandable. Dorm communities benefit from designated time together, much like clubs or sports teams carve out time outside the field or classroom to connect.
But under the new policy, day students who remain on campus are not welcome at these dinner tables unless a boarder individually invites them to join. Day students waiting for evening activities on campus—such as the Miltones, Speech and Debate Team, or open lab—are expected to spend this time in the Stu until boarder dinner ends. When asked about the policy, Director of Residential Life Christopher Lewis noted that the goal of the new program was “to both navigate space constraints and make sit-down dinner quality programming.” The flow of day students in and out of Forbes had strained the dining staff and disrupted this meal for boarders, according to Lewis.
He explained, “Our expectation is also that day students should still be able to get a meal between the end of sports and 6:00 p.m. or find a meal at the snack bar.”
This policy is difficult to reconcile with Milton’s commitment to inclusion. The school promotes a community in which day students are always welcome on campus and may share every and any meal with peers. The Miltones, Speech and Debate Team, and Robotics highlight the fullness of the Milton program that extends beyond academic and athletic day. Yet these robust programs succeed because students across the entire community participate. Day students should not have to spend nearly an hour waiting simply to take part in the opportunities that brought them to Milton, while also feeling excluded from its own community during the wait. Why should parents be asked to drive to campus at 8:00 p.m., 9:00 p.m., or 10:00 p.m. to pick up their students if those same students are sitting around earlier in the day waiting for boarders to finish dinner?
“If you offer meals for day students three meals a day, then actually offer them—not just by leaving twenty plates out,” Asher Berk ’29 said. “This new dining policy feels not fair because how are day students who stay late supposed to have a proper dinner?” Berk added it is “unrealistic” for day students to eat dinner between the end of sports and 6:00 p.m.
Deciding on a dining policy does not need to be a fight between supporting the boarding community and the day community. Milton can preserve dorm dinners without excluding students who remain on campus. A simple solution would be to create a table for day students during these dinners. Different faculty and staff could rotate and host the table, offering day students their own opportunity to connect with adults over a shared meal. The current policy draws unnecessary boundaries between the two groups that Milton, otherwise, works so hard to unite. As with every other part of the Milton experience, the answer should be inclusion.