Effects Behind Upperclassmen Privileges

Believe it or not, upperclassmen privileges do affect everyone on campus. 

Recently graduating as an upperclassman from Fenn, an all-boys middle school just two miles away from Middlesex, I enjoyed receiving the upperclassmen’s special privileges. I also loved stepping up and taking numerous leadership positions on campus. As the captain of varsity cross country and track last year, I learned that for a group to achieve success, there has to be one who leads by example for the rest to follow. I enjoyed impacting new students in a positive way, even minor actions like stopping a new student in the hallway and catching up on how their first years have been goes a long way to make them feel delighted. I also enjoyed sharing my personal story: the highs, the lows, and the lessons I learned throughout the journey to the Fenn community’s members during my senior reflection speech. However, as I graduated from Fenn and came to Middlesex, there was inevitably going to be an enormous change in expectations of my role on campus.

From my perspective as a freshman on campus, I respect the privileges that are granted to upperclassmen and look up to them as my role models, because upperclassmen have been at Middlesex for a longer period of time. They are able to learn from the mistakes they made when they first came in. It is thus crucial for freshmen and sophomores to pay their dues to their more knowledgeable peers. Special privileges granted to upperclassmen exist as a method to create respect. 

Current Junior, Ian Lam’25 suggests he appreciates the push-back in check-in time for upperclassmen. The push-back means a lot to him because it not only offers him more flexibility and freedom but also reminds him constantly of the responsibility to become a model for younger students, which can only be accomplished by holding his actions to high standards.  

As a faculty member who is currently living on campus, Philip Caspar provides me with a personal experience from the past: during years when he was coaching Cross Country, he discovered that leadership was necessary for a team to achieve success. He claims that upperclassmen were the ones who demonstrated to younger teammates the importance of work ethic. He states that the same concept also applies to our MX community: he firmly believes that in order for our community to have a successful upcoming year, the upperclassmen need to lead Middlesex with strong examples of leadership. While underclassmen are the ones who need more time to adjust to a new school, upperclassmen are students who have been here long enough and should be stepping up and demonstrating to freshmen and sophomores the community norms at MX.

Special privileges should only be granted to upperclassmen if their behaviors are indeed guiding our community toward a positive path. Indeed, being over-privileged is not a good state to be in. In fact, I can already imagine that if upperclassmen were permitted with too many privileges on campus, it would likely lead them into making poor decisions.

We shall hope for the best—upperclassmen putting privileges to good use—and let us have an amazing year ahead!

Sunny Qian