Student Handbook - The Taft School

RESIDENTIAL LIFE
GENERAL RULES FOR RESIDENTIAL LIFE
1. Students must be inside the buildings at 8:00 p.m. (Please consult the Fundamental
Rules for regulations regarding being off campus.) Naturally, students may leave buildings
to move about the main campus area, but under no circumstances should they be
out on the athletic fields, the golf course, the cemetery, etc., after 8:00 p.m. On nights
when students are allowed downtown after 8:00 p.m., they are expected to use the main
roadways to go downtown. Downtown privileges do not extend to the adjacent fields
and the golf course.
Students are not to be off corridor after 10:15 p.m. except that seniors may visit
other senior rooms after 10:30 p.m. until 12:00 a.m.—boys between senior rooms on
the second, third, and fourth floors of CPT and girls on the various floors of their own
dormitories—Vogelstein and Centennial. In addition, seniors may visit faculty apartments
in their own dormitories.
2. Sufficient quiet must be maintained in the dormitories at all times to allow those who wish
to study or sleep to do so.
3. Students may use radios, stereos, and other music-making devices. However, at no time may
this equipment be played loudly enough to disturb anyone. A further restriction is placed
on the volume level of stereos from the beginning of evening study hall until the end of
classes the next day. During these time periods, lowermids and mids may play music only
through earphones, and uppermids and seniors may play stereos only at a level that cannot
be heard outside the room.
4. During study hall and after lights, lower school students may not use computers for
e-mail, instant messaging, or Internet surfing except with permission from the faculty
member on duty.
5. Dedicated game systems such as the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, or Sony PlayStation
are not allowed to be played in student rooms. However, these games are permitted in common
rooms during times designated by dormitory faculty.
6. Students are not permitted to have television sets, television monitors, dedicated video
game systems, video projectors, or any permutations of TV/VCR/DVD devices in their
dormitory room.
7. Televisions are installed in common rooms for students’ viewing. They may not, however, be
turned on before the end of the class day, during study hall, or after lights. An exception to
this rule applies to seniors, who may watch television in their own common rooms after lights
until midnight. DVD movies can be viewed on room computers only during the times that
students are allowed to watch television.
8. Students are not allowed to gamble.
9. Students are not allowed to use the school elevators without an excuse from the Health Center.
10. Dart boards are not permitted.
11. Students may not keep pets at school under any circumstances. Fish are permitted. Small,
toothless fish.
12. Liquor bottles and/or beer cans or bottles may not be used as room decorations or kept in
student rooms.
13. The porches of HDT and CPT are off limits for students.
14. The use of rollerblades, skateboards, scooters or bicycles is not permitted inside school buildings.
32 The Taft School