When you walk into Peirce Hall, you may notice something funny: Athletes sit on Old Side, and NARPs (the acronym that refers to a non-athlete and technically stands for “non-athletic regular person”) sit on New Side. While not a hard and fast rule, this separation does represent a larger phenomenon here at Kenyon. Socially speaking, there is a divide between athletes and NARPs. You can often tell an athlete from a NARP based on the clothes they wear, the parties they go to, the gossip they hear and where they are from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on any given day. 

Ariana Rowe ’28 plays for the field hockey team. When she was a first year, she had an automatic community to rely on when she arrived on campus early for preseason. “That was so comforting freshman year, having a group that [is] like a family. You don’t necessarily like every member of your family, but you love them and you’re there for them no matter what.” Rowe bonds with her team between practices and games, but being on field hockey also gives her a group to eat, study and go out with. “I think that’s part of the [NARP-athlete] divide. You’re spending so much time with this group of people,” she added.

Besides the insularity of teams, the distinct daily routines between NARPs and athletes is another factor that many cited for why there seems to be such a big divide. Schedules vary depending on the team and the season, but most athletes participate in some combination of early-morning lifts, afternoon practices, games and a variety of other team commitments on any given day.

Ari Jalomo ’26 used to be on the softball team, and since leaving the team has had more free time and a more flexible schedule. “I’ve been able to spend more time in the parts of Kenyon that I love the most,” Jalomo explained. “Not to say that I didn’t love being a student-athlete at Kenyon. However, one thing that drew me to Kenyon was how physically different everyone was, and how quirky Kenyon students are. And now I get to sit in that quirkiness a lot more.” 

Aeneas Stailey ’26, a football player, shared a similar sentiment: Athletes sometimes cannot appreciate all that Kenyon has to offer because their rigorous schedules may leave them feeling insulated. His girlfriend, Poppy Meyer ’27, is a theater-involved NARP and has broadened his horizons to the diversity of talents at Kenyon. “Spending a lot of time with [Meyer] and seeing her world, [we’ve been] going to plays and the Kokosingers. There’s all these things that are happening all the time here that you’re a little bit closed off to when you just sort of are stagnant with who you spend your time with.” 

Just as Meyer’s NARPiness has rubbed off on Stailey, his typical athlete characteristics have rubbed off on her as well. Meyer explained a significant change in her morning routine as a result of dating Stailey. “I am waking up at like seven in the morning every day with him. And that’s by my choice,” Meyer said. “Now I have five extra hours in my day. It’s pretty amazing. I’ve been telling some girls, ‘You guys gotta wake up. You gotta wake up early.’”

From seeing Meyer’s theater projects and the work that goes into them, Stailey understands that the commitments NARPs put into their activities are just as worthy of celebration as his commitment to football. “I’m super aware of how insignificant Kenyon football feels sometimes. But also there’s a huge time commitment that goes into that, and a lot of people from a bunch of different walks of life all get together and do this thing. And that is also very evident when you go watch a play,” Stailey described. “They’re all, in essence, very similar that way. I think if we could all just acknowledge that, [it] would probably be easier to celebrate each other.”

A specific sign of the division between NARPs and athletes is evidenced by relatively low game attendance. Jalomo speculated, “Maybe no one’s coming to athletic events because [athletes are] not becoming friends with the majority of the student body. Varsity athletes are 30% of our student body, which means that if you’re not becoming friends with 70% of the student body, who’s showing up to your games? No one. Maybe that’s an issue.”

Addison Shafley ’28, a NARP who lives with four swimmers, also exemplifies that the boundary between NARPs and athletes can be overcome. She supports her housemates at their meets and recognizes the realities for Kenyon athletes that some NARPs don’t get to see. “It takes a lot of drive, and I can see that with them. I think that stereotype that some athletes are dumb or stupid isn’t right because they’re putting in so much work just to make sure that they’re staying ahead in their classes, that they’re on top of their workouts and all of those things,” Shafley said. “They have the ‘human over athlete’ shirts. At first, I thought it was kind of weird, but now I do understand it, because just as ‘NARP’ is a label for us, ‘athlete’ is a label for them.”

The divide between NARPs and athletes may be due in some part to the tendency of some NARPs to make unfair generalizations about athletes. Rowe explained how athletes are sometimes hesitant to branch out beyond their teams or even athletics as a whole. “Kenyon is a very intimidating campus. People dress in such a cool way and are into very niche cool music that I just feel like we haven’t always been around people that are cool in that sense.” Since joining Theta Delta Phi last year, Rowe’s perspective on Kenyon and the differences between athletes and NARPs has changed drastically. “This goes for non-athletes and athletes. You might not look like you’re super weird or whatever … [but] everyone has weird in them at Kenyon. Theta has helped me realize that, in the absolute best way.” 

A common theme among those interviewed was a belief that the divide does not have to be as significant as it sometimes feels. “It’s an artificial divide that we’re talking about. If you could just put that ego down and just be like, ‘You like that, great for you,’” Stailey explained. “That’s kind of what Poppy’s put me on to, never yucking someone’s yum, like she says. You’re never as different as you think you are.”