On January 27, 2023, Dean of Students Samuel Bicknell sent out a school-wide email, on behalf of the Student Life Office, with the subject line “Supporting healthy decisions.” It echoed emails from previous years regarding healthy decision-making in the winter.
The email acknowledged the challenging nature of Winter Term, with fewer hours of daylight and colder temperatures adding to students’ busy schedules and large course load. Winter Term has historically marked “an uptick in substance abuse,” according to Mr. Bicknell, with such decisions often leading to an increase in disciplinary cases around January and February.
In his email, Mr. Bicknell informed students that they would “likely see a heightened Student Life presence in the dorms after curfew in the coming weeks,” stressing that the notice was intended to express transparency and clarity, not catch people in compromising situations. He referenced a proactive, as opposed to reactive, approach in helping students avoid bad decisions.
Mr. Bicknell also noted, “Students making healthy decisions can be put into an uncomfortable situation by the actions of other peers. The potential presence of an adult could give people an ‘out’ for students who don’t wish to participate in such activity.”
Referring to the SLO’s increased presence in dorms, Preyas Sinha ’24, a member of the Disciplinary Committee, said, “I am not sure how much it’ll decrease substance use because the people who use them are not planning on getting caught anyways.”
To enhance campus regualtions, a few years ago, the Academy brought in Arizona State University researcher Suniya Luther to conduct a campus climate study that Assistant Head for Student Life Amie Creagh described, in an interview, as “similar to [the] Thrive [Survey] but more comprehensive.” Ms. Creagh recalled that Deerfield students’ responses regarding stress, workload, connectedness to adults, sleep, and substance use were consistent with results from other high achieving schools evaluated by Luther’s organization, Authentic Connections.
During this time of year, the SLO addresses substance use in a variety of ways in addition to being more present in dorms, including the Be Worthy program, inviting outside speakers, reinforcing advisor-to-advisee conversations and relationships, and the peer counseling program.
The Be Worthy program was established to “have the upperclassmen be role models for the underclassmen,” according to Be Worthy Program coordinator and Student Life Associate Kevin Kelly. He explained that the program introduces pairings through sit-down table rotations because it is a “neutral and natural setting for a casual meal that helps establish or reinforce existing relationships with pairings,” he said.
The SLO also invited Tony Hoffman to a January school meeting to reiterate the importance of making healthy decisions. Ms. Creagh described the idea as: “Tell them what you told them, tell them, then tell them again.” She explained that the approach to lessening substance abuse on campus “has to be a multi-prong approach because it is not as effective if it is always Mr. Bicknell at the podium.”
In a boarding school environment where Deerfield assumes responsibility for students, the SLO emphasizes that their actions are preventative measures that take a proactive approach. Ms. Creagh said, “The data suggests that 100% of students that were involved in reactive approaches would have preferred a proactive approach,” arguing that measures such as SLO presence in dorms are preferable to having to undergo the disciplinary process.