Harvard-Westlake • Studio City • Volume 35 • Issue 1 • Sept. 2, 2025 • hwchronicle.com
Belonging policies introduced
Seaver renovated over break By Holden Kim
By Emmeline Chan
The Seaver building is currently undergoing a remodel that has been in development for the past three years. The primary aim of the remodel is to create a new Wellness Center which will be located on the building’s second floor. Additionally, offices and classrooms on the building’s third floor will be upgraded. While the third floor will remain open during the remodel, the second floor will be closed until the end of December this year. The project is expected to be complete by the end of winter break before classes resume. Upper School Plant Manager Ed Wormald, who is overseeing the remodel of the Seaver building, said this project is part of the school’s ongoing effort to make meaningful changes to campus facilities without disrupting daily life. “Each year we look at all the buildings and decide which parts need to be remodeled, whether that’s classrooms, offices or shared spaces,” Wormald said. “We don’t want to shut down an entire building, so we usually focus on certain areas, like a floor or wing. The Seaver remodel is larger than usual, but it fits into this ongoing cycle of upgrades.” Wormald said when the project is finished, the history department will move from their temporary space in Feldman-Horn back to an updated office in Seaver. “The history department is currently in the Feldman-Horn Gallery and will remain there through December,” Wormald said. “That’s not the permanent location. Once the remodel is complete, the department and staff offices will move back into Seaver.” History teacher Peter Sheehy said the improvement of Seaver’s classrooms and offices will foster a more productive learning and teaching environment in the coming years.
we do know that it’s not great for you.” Engelberg said this policy stemmed from the school’s belief that its nuanced approach would help students develop a more responsible relationship with devices. “These kinds of phone restrictions are spreading across the country – everything from phonefree schools to schools that require you to put your phone in a bag or in a locker to what we’re doing at Harvard-Westlake, which we actually think is a bit more sophisticated,” Engelberg said. “We’re allowing students to continue to possess their devices and even use them when it’s appropriate. We think that that’s a more mature approach, and will ultimately help students develop a better relationship with the device.” President Rick Commons said while upperclassmen may face a difficult transition from a lenient phone policy to a stricter one, he hopes they will ultimately welcome the change by appreciating how it can strengthen connections.
The school instated a series of policies with the goal of increasing community, belonging and fostering connections this year. Head of Upper School Beth Slattery said that following the COVID-19 pandemic, declines in teen mental health and Los Angeles fires, the school felt the need to strengthen community bonds this year. “The past five years have been hard,” Slattery said. “COVID-19 had people get really used to not being together, and so I’m trying to have people be more intentional about spending time together.” Since the end of last year, faculty talked about new policies to help students engage with their peers and teachers more. One new implementation this year is moving community time and class seminars to earlier in the day. Slattery said that the schedule change was implemented to avoid students leaving campus at 1 p.m. and skipping class meetings and community time to go home early. “Students were saying to faculty that the only time they could set up meetings was during lunch because they wanted to leave school and go home early,” Slattery said. “It was creating a lot of stress on teachers, and so by putting the office hours and free periods earlier in the day when kids will definitely be on campus, it creates more time for people to actually be together.” Another policy change is the cell phone restriction policy, which aims to make people more present and create a stronger sense of community. Students will still be allowed to text on their computers in case of emergencies, but faculty hope that students will connect with each other in person more now that they are unable to spend time at school on their phones. The school will also enforce faculty supervision during free periods. Every lunch, office hour and class seminar, five assigned faculty members will walk around the quad and sweep academic buildings to make sure all students are present and engaged.
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COLIN HO//CHRONICLE
DIGITAL DETOX: In an effort to build community and aid productivity, students will no longer be able to use their phones freely on campus. The Opal app is used to restrict access to social media during the school days.
New mobile device usage policy put into place at Upper School campus
By Holden Kim
The Upper School announced its new phone policy for the 2025-2026 school year in an email sent on Aug. 8. Beginning this fall, students who bring phones to campus will be required to install Opal, a screen time app that blocks access to video games and social media. This marks a significant shift from last year’s policy, under which students were granted unrestricted use of phones. The school said the guidelines were based on findings showing most students would voluntarily opt into restrictions like Opal, particularly if doing so would allow them to continue to access essential phone functions. Head of Communications and Strategic Initiatives Ari Engelberg ’89 said in recent years, administrators of the school have grown increasingly concerned about antisocial student behavior attributable to cell phone use, warranting an intervention from the school. “During students’ free time
at lunch or break 10 or 20 years ago, you would go down to the Quad and see eight or 10 people sitting around a table talking with one another,” Engelberg said. “Now, when you go down to the Quad, you’ll see eight or 10 people at a table, and all of them will be on cell phones. They may be doing things that you would consider to be productive and not distracting, but we also know that some of it is either social media, games or other sources of distraction.” Head of Upper School Beth Slattery said the school’s status as one of the only remaining campuses in Los Angeles without cell phone restrictions further convinced her it was time for the school to act, even if it chose to allow continued phone use on campus with restrictions. “We were one of the only schools left out there that didn’t already [implement] a phone policy, and also a bunch of schools in the area created a coalition,” Slattery said. “It seemed like the time was right and that we had to try something because
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IN THIS ISSUE
A3
A10
A11
B3
C3
Sentimental Sunrise: Seniors gathered at the Annenberg Community Beach House to kick off their last year at the school.
Performative Trends: With matcha and feminist literature on the rise, Jack Fener ’27 debunks the perfomative male archetype.
Dynamic Duo: Editors-in-chief Kayla Graff ’26 and Sienna Dall’Olmo ’26 share their goals for Volume 35 of The Chronicle.
Vroom Vroom: Community members discuss the usage of Waymo among high schoolers as an alternative to Uber.
Contentious Ads: Zara Groves ’27 dissects recent commercial advertisements that have sparked widespread controversey.