Eights Graders Devastated Due To Campus Center Loss

Eights+Graders+Devastated+Due+To+Campus+Center+Loss

At the Westminster Schools, the Campus Center has been a pretty big part of student life around the campus. In a normal year, the Campus Center is a place where students, teachers, and faculty can all go to get food and drinks and even hang out with friends. However, when Covid-19 struck, that all changed. In order to keep everyone safe, the Campus Center has temporarily shut down. Not being able to visit this building is an adaptation that everyone around the campus has had to make, and most people are not happy about losing their favorite place to eat and enjoy each other’s company. 

Eighth graders are particularly sad about this loss. “Last year after lunch we were allowed to go to the campus center after lunch and could get bagels and cookies, etc,” says 8th grader Drew Ausband. “In 8th grade, we are supposed to have it 2-3 days a week, and I’m kinda sad that we don’t get to do that this year.”

The eighth-graders, out of everyone in the Middle School, are the most annoyed, for they will not get the advantage of more time at the Campus Center this year. Usually, they are allowed more time due to the fact that they are the oldest in the Middle School. Eighth graders feel like they have earned the privilege. “I do think that it is fair that 8th graders get more time than the 6th and 7th graders because you earn more time for each year,” 8th grader Kate Barton explains. “In 6th grade, you don’t have any time at the campus center, in 7th grade, you have one scheduled day a week, and the 8th graders get 2-3 days.”

Although students miss the Camus Center very much, it is important for everyone to understand why the Campus Center had to temporarily close and why this was the right decision to make. “It is a very small and confined space, and people go in on the daily in large numbers. Cross-contamination is also a consideration, with the food and also because there are high schoolers and middle schoolers,” Kate Barton states. 

We can only hope that as the pandemic hopefully eases, the Campus Center comes back. Until then, we have to patiently wait and be sure that Westminster will be doing the best thing for us.