By BEN PRIME

Day students get no respect.

That's long been the feeling of many kids who commute to Deerfield and other boarding schools across the country. This month, though, Deerfield's day students started organizing in an effort to become more involved in campus life. About 25 day students filled the lobby of Memorial building on a weekday afternoon in an effort to unify. They wanted try to bring together kids who hang out in the lobby and the Day Student Lounge as well as "day students who don't want to be considered day students," said Kyle Yager '06. Sprawled in the lobby, the students talked with each other and made new friends, conquering a problem day students have struggled with for years.

Day students often feel separated-even alienated-from the social life of those who spend 24 hours a day on campus. First, they need to wake up earlier for classes in the morning. Some, such as Dom Uguccioni '04 of Colrain, Mass., commute nearly 50 minutes a day.

Another drawback is detachment from Deerfield's social scene. "It's much more difficult to make friends as a day student because during the school day, nobody is trying to make new friends, but instead trying to concentrate on their schoolwork," said Megan Williams '06. "The time that friends are really made are either on weekends, or after curfew."

When asked why he thought that boarders didn't try to make friends with day students, Russell Follansbee '05 replied, "Because boarders think they are sketchy." He's not exactly sure why this is the case, but he has heard descriptions of "sketchy Greenfielders" passed around campus. Day students feel the school doesn't put much effort into integrating day students with boarders. Aside from a day student lounge located in the basement of the Arms Building next to the student mailboxes, the day students don't have much on campus to call their own. The lounge has several chairs and couches arranged haphazardly in a circle. They also hang out in the Memorial Building doing homework, chatting, or napping in the stuffed chairs. Clark Flynt '04 says that even though the school doesn't do much in order to help day students feel more comfortable, the day students never really make it evident how they feel. When students meet together in the day student lounge, they "spend more time complaining about being day students than hanging out or trying to solve any of their problems," said Clark. This made matters more difficult, because not only were day students overlooking ways to feel more comfortable on campus, they were keeping each other from focusing on being friends with each other. Most agree a recent sleepover for day students was a step in the right direction.

Once Jeremiah Bayer '05 made some friends through sports and the Greer, he began sleeping on campus over the weekend with his friends.

"The transition at first is difficult and it takes a little while to make friends, but after you meet a few kids, it gets easier," said Jeremiah. "I also have some friends at home [Greenfield] that I can hang out with, which makes it really nice if I need to get off campus for a weekend and still be with some friends."