Harvard-Westlake • Studio City • Volume 34 • Issue 6 • May 8, 2025 • hwchronicle.com
Admin responds to cheating
Applications decrease by 13%
By Erin Ryu
By Connor Tang
The Prefect Council announced in a school-wide email that several sophomores have been disciplined for buying and selling photos of tests and quizzes. Dean of Students Jordan Church handled disciplinary actions on a case-by-case basis following recent investigations by his office, the Honors Chemistry team and Honor Board. “The student responsible for taking and distributing the photos has been suspended for the remainder of the year and will receive a failing grade in the class,” the email said. “Other students who admitted to giving and receiving these exams faced combinations of single-day suspensions and zeros on the affected exams.” Head of Upper School Beth Slattery said the root cause of cheating likely comes from the school’s emphasis on academics. “We’re trying to remind people that cheating is not a victimless crime,” Slattery said. “But it all gets back to the biggest problem with our school, where the toxic agenda culture and the obsession with college is just absolutely insane. I do think if you take away the obsession with getting good grades and getting into colleges, there would be less cheating.” President Rick Commons said the school is determined to continue instilling integrity and academic honesty in its students as its mission. “It is an essential part of our mission as a school and an essential part of the training that we aim to give students at Harvard-Westlake an education on how to have integrity in their lives,” Commons said. “It’s a big deal when there are violations of academic integrity. In my career as an educator, I’ve never had a year where there haven’t been some significant violations of the institutional commitment to academic integrity. Of course, when I learned about the violations that had taken place, I was disappointed.”
Applications to the school were down 13% for both prospective seventh and ninth graders this year, according to the admissions office. The 2023-24 admissions cycle had an admit rate of 24%, the lowest on record. The admit rate increased to 31% the following year for rising seventh and ninth graders and reached 35% in the most recent admissions cycle. Head of Admissions and Enrollment Chris Sanders said the sizable drop in applications can be attributed to the death of student Ben Ellis ’27 and past student deaths. Displacement caused by the Palisades and Altadena fires also caused a drop in applicants, Sanders said. Sanders said the admissions department decided to be transparent with all prospective families regarding the tragedies, even if some were apprehensive about the situation. “[President Rick] Commons and [Head of School] Laura Ross were willing to really talk about the deaths and how the school has responded all together,” Sanders said. “Families respected us for not running away from it. We talked about how mental health and wellness was a priority for the school well before the very first student death even happened. But now that we have some renewed resources and focus on it, including our director of wellness, we were able to highlight that [to prospective families].” According to Sanders, a large number of prospective families affected by the Los Angeles wildfires withdrew applications early in the process. “We do draw a large number of applicants from both the Palisades and Pasadena,” Sanders said. “There were families that mentioned they were going to exit the process because they were relocating to a different place because of losing their homes.” Despite the drop in applications, Commons said the admissions department was still able to draw from an ample number of talented applicants.
LUCA GONZALEZ/CHRONICLE
WELCOMING WELLNESS: A student talks with Counselor Tina McGraw in her office. The renovations in Seaver, set to completed by winter 2026, will feature a new wellness suite offering mental health resources.
Renovations to create wellness suite in Seaver, expand history department
By Yuna Jeon
The school plans to renovate the second and third floors of Seaver starting this summer. The renovations will include a new wellness suite on the second floor, a new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) office, a multi-purpose room and a new welcome center. The changes will replace the receptionist desk in Seaver, relocate the history department office to the second floor and relocate President Rick Commons and Head of School Laura Ross’ offices. Construction is set to begin in June, with the new facilities set to open by the winter of the following year. The renovations will be in collaboration with architect Andrea Keller, who renovated the Mudd Library this past year. Director of Wellness Marci Reichert said the new wellness center will serve as a place for leisure and build community in times of need. “We want to make [the wellness center] a space where people want to come to build relation-
ships with students in a more fun and social way,” Reichert said. “Then they will naturally start to build a support system so that when they do have a moment where they need something, they’ve already built that relationship up. I see it as a community building place.” Commons said the renovations will centralize mental health resources for students and give faculty operations more space. “The project reflects our commitment to do everything we can to make the student experience healthier and give students access to resources to take care of themselves when they need it,” Commons said. “That’s the biggest impetus. It’ll help the history department and help create space for faculty and clerical services that currently are next door.” Ross said the new wellness center will draw inspiration from the middle school campus. “[The middle school] was able to move both of the middle school counselors’ offices next to each other so that people knew there
was a place to go to,” Reichert said. “That feels like something we might want to model here.” History Department Chair Celia Goedde said the renovations will benefit the history department and their space. “The history department was consulted about how we wanted to configure the space where our office will be on the second floor, and we also got to work with the architect about designing the office space,” Goedde said. “We wanted to have plenty of shelf space for books and were happy that it could be accommodated.” Reichert said the new wellness center will serve as part of the school’s broader movement toward prioritizing student wellness. “With the loss of students that we experienced, I think it really pushed the school to realize that we need to prioritize our student wellness,” Reichert said. “This is part of just the bigger movement that the school is working towards, looking at how we can make things more fun and joyful for students.”
• Continued on A2
• Continued on A3
IN THIS ISSUE
A2
A11
B1-2
D2 C2
D3
Cultures and Cuisine: The school community celebrated various ethnicities and cultures during the Multicultural Fair last week.
Scrutinizing the Schedule: Assistant Opinion Editor Ellika LeSage ’26 argues that the new schedule will be detrimental to students.
Commencing the Class: Students and faculty reflect on the roles of valedictorian and salutatorian over time and their significance.
Lighting it Up: The school’s Symphony and Chamber Orchestra performed a set of pieces at the ‘Lights Up’ festival last week.
Dusting The Pack: The track and field teams are off to the CIF Preliminary Rounds after a Mission League Finals meet.