Dear Editor:

Last weekend at the invitation of Professor Mary Hoppe, I served as one of the judges in the annual Science Fair. It was great fun for me to work with these very bright youngsters, again, and to be around college-age men and women who are both pleasant and polite.

I’m sure you do not need me to tell you how hard Mary and Martha McBride work on this project or what an impressive event they produce.

It was a bustling, well-organized and uplifting program. I am sure first time and infrequent visitors to Norwich had to be very favorably impressed.

The campus looked great, and the students with whom I came in contact were wonderful ambassadors for the college. I hope you will continue to provide excellent leadership for the forseeable future. Please pass on my "good show" to the ladies behind this great annual event.

Best Regards,
Henry Muse
(Mr. Muse’s letter was sent to President Schneider and reprinted here with permission.)

Dear Editor:

Everyone who lives in Northfield, including the students and full time residents, think highly of the town having the Subway restaurant here. They serve good food, and it's a nice change of pace from the privately owned restaurants that are so abundant here.

I frequent Subway as much as it be that the plan for Subway was to run businesses like Dunkin Donuts out of town and develop loyal customers, only to eventually increase their prices? Or was it a coincidence that Subways prices increased after Dunkin Donuts closed down? I don’t know, but I am interested to know if all Subway restaurants in the area have also increased their prices, or if it was only the one in Northfield.

I am not condemning Subway or the owners, or people that work there; I am simply just concerned that there might be a trend of rapidly increasing prices in a town where there are little options.

Kevin Schieve

Dear Editor:

A new policy has been brought to my attention regarding student visitors. The policy requires that any visitor of the opposite sex from the host/hostess must stay in the dorm room of a same-sex student. For example, if my boyfriend were to visit, he would have to stay in a male's room in the dorm and would not be allowed to stay in mine. I find this policy to be absolutely ridiculous. Once a person turns 18, they become an adult and are capable of making their own decisions and living their own lives. It does not seem reasonable to me that a couple, or even just friends who happen to be different sexes, cannot spend the night in the same room. It seems absolutely absurd for all of the students who are either engaged or married to have their spouses staying with someone else for the night. I do not see how the administration can try to control the students like this, especially since they support co-ed dorms. We have accepted this dry campus; we have accepted strict rules because it is a military school. We even accept that freshmen and sophomores can't have vehicles on campus. However, I do not believe that the student body will accept a rule that doesn't allow them to have a guest, be it a friend, relative, or significant other, stay in their own room. Too many freedoms are being taken away from us, from adults who are expected to make conscious decisions about their futures during college years, yet not trusted to make conscious decisions about their personal lives. This policy may be reasonable for high school kids, but not for college adults. It is our lives; we should at least be given the respect that we will make the choices that are right for us.

Danielle Meunier

Commencement is here. It has been an incredible academic year, and I want to commend everyone who will be commissioned and who will be graduating and going off to serve the nation or to make their fortune in the world. I really want to commend the seniors for their great leadership this year, and both ring committees for a wonderful Junior Ring Weekend. From my conversations with students throughout the weekend, it was a huge success, and everyone had a great time being together. That is what Norwich is all about, anyway – staying together. And I do encourage the seniors to make sure they align themselves to an alumni chapter or club in their next location or to start one, if necessary. Please make sure you keep in touch with us to let us know of address changes, so we can continue to send news from the campus via the Norwich Record, which is our primary vehicle to communicate with our alumni.

The leadership for next year has been chosen, identified, and appointed. There is much for the staff to do to get ready for the next academic year, and we will be working hard over the course of the summer. I think we have two major challenges as a campus ahead of us next year – the first, the inappropriate use of alcohol and drugs; the second, a misplaced principle that loyalty to a friend is more important than loyalty to institutional values or one's personal integrity and honor. Expect to be hearing more on how we might tackle these two significant cultural issues in the semesters ahead.

To all the faculty, thanks for spending so much time with our students in and out of class. Thanks, also, to all the staff for their many hours of mentoring and making sure our campus stays safe, clean, and functioning properly, and a special thanks to all the alums who provide the resources for us to make sure our students can stay at school and graduate from Norwich.

Have a great summer!

Usually the editorial represents the combined opinion of the staff, but somewhere along the line the final editorial of the year became the Managing Editor's chance to say a few final words.

After four years at Norwich, I have seen a lot of crazy, fun, dangerous, and often stupid stuff.

I have seen misunderstandings and overreactions ruin a number of very good things, and when I think about the fact that we are all adults, here, it seems ridiculous that any of us act before we recieve all the facts. Getting the real story is, after all, what we are being trained to do.

Knowing the facts won't solve all the problems, but it might help in recognizing why certain things are done.

This one lesson is what I hope to leave those of you who haven't finished your time, here. Be understanding. Be open-minded, and try to see the other side of the story. A reporter cannot afford to be closed-minded or biased.

None of us can. Play devil's advocate with yourself, and look at things from the other person's point of view. You would be surprised at how different things might look.

But above all, understand that not everything is fair or right, and we are all only doing what we see as best.

Kylee Dalmata
Managing Editor