Signing Out Goes Digital
This year, Groton has implemented a new sign-out system through REACH Boarding School Platform, an Australian company specializing in automated student management systems for boarding schools. Previously, students who wished to leave campus had to return to their dorms and write details of the sign-out on paper. It is now possible for students to sign...
Signing Out Goes Digital
Sammy Agrawal '21 |October 3, 2017
This year, Groton has implemented a new sign-out system through REACH Boarding School Platform, an Australian company specializing in automated student management systems for boarding schools. Previously, students who wished to leave campus had to return to their dorms and write details of the sign-out on paper. It is now possible for students to sign out from anywhere on campus through their phones.
The Deans’ Office, which spearheaded the effort, said the change largely occurred to make student sign-out quicker. Dean of Students Michael O’Donnell said that “that inconvenience [of walking] discouraged students from signing out the way we’d expect them to, which meant we didn’t always have an accurate record of who was where.” Some students appreciate this easy sign-out system— one student said “I like it the new way much better. I hated having to go all the way to the dorm [to sign out]”.
The change also ensures that faculty members can quickly account for all students when it might be necessary. Mr. O’Donnell acknowledged that the old sign-out system was inconvenient for accountability, saying, “If we had an emergency and needed to account for everyone, we’d need to gather 18 clipboards from 18 dormitories before we could start to get a sense of who was where.”
The new app will bring benefits to both students and faculty. However, an unpopular change is that requests for overnight leaves from campus must be approved before students can leave. Only after approval can students actually sign out, which has caused both confusion and consternation.
Mr. O’Donnell said of the new sign-out system,“The one challenge has been getting people to remember to take the next step, which is actually signing out to the leave once it has been approved, and then signing back in when they return.”
Despite these issues, the implementation of the REACH system has gone smoothly. Posters in dorms explain how to use the app. Andrew Huo ’21, a new third former, says the app “was very simple to use. It’s so self-explanatory, you just sign on and fill out the form.”