Along with just about everything else in every facet of life, the restrictions for Williston day students have changed due to Covid.

These new restrictions, put in place by the administration, have been enforced since September 1, the first day of the 2020-21 school year. The restrictions were set up to benefit the health and safety of all students and faculty, regardless if they are day or boarding.

To reduce the density of students on campus, the new restrictions allow day students on campus for a limited amount of time. To reduce the number of students in the dining hall, this includes no longer allowing day students to eat breakfast or dinner on campus.

Day students have been given the option as well to opt out of afternoon activities during this year, in case they do not feel comfortable participating in team athletics. However, if a student does decide to participate, they are asked to leave campus as soon as their practice ends.

Five-year senior Devon Morgan decided to opt out of her fall sport this trimester, soccer.

“My family mainly didn’t really want me to play and I am not crazy attached to sports in general I guess,” Devon said.

However, while the choice made sense for Devon, there are pros and cons. On the one hand she has more time to focus on work and other priorities, but the time spent with a team is sorely missed.

“I miss the people and vibe of being on a team a lot,” she said.

Typically, day students can stay on campus after sports for dinner and through study hall. Here, they can spend time with their friends after practice, do work, or also go to club meetings at night.

Day students, with the new restrictions, are also asked to follow new safer-at-home protocols. The school is asking students to remain at home as much as possible while not at school to prevent them from receiving germs from other places and bringing them to campus.

In charge of creating these new protocols is the Associate Dean of Students, David Koritkoski, who said that the safety of all students is of the upmost importance.

“The first priority of the return to campus was safety, how can we repopulate the campus and de-densify enough to make sure that we can have social distancing, mask wearing, all of those items taken care of, and then work on having a strong positive student experience,” he said.

However, due to the uncertainty of the virus, there is still a lot unknown by the administration. While there was promise of some restrictions being lifted later in the trimester, Williston administration is still unsure what, if any, rules will change.

“There is a group getting together at the end of this week with administrators and Sage [dining services] to talk about how the opening has gone and what the dining experience has looked like so far and how and what changes might be made,” Koritkoski told The Willistonian.

Some day students are not happy with the new restrictions. Four-year day senior Jillian Dietz believes the new guidelines have the potential to divide the day and boarding student population, especially because the time a day student can be on campus is limited.

“It creates more of a divide of our campus when what we are trying to do is bring people together,” Jillian said.

With these restrictions in place, some day students having difficulty finding quiet places to do work. In Jillian’s case, there are many distractions at home, she said, which makes it difficult for her to do work and practice dances she learns in at her afternoon activity.

“I have to go home and dance with distractions from my family constantly walking in and out of the room or my dogs running through,” she said.