Picture this: The diplomas have been distributed, the photos have been taken, your friends and family are beaming with pride. You’ve done it. You’ve finally graduated from Kenyon College after four years of hard work. It’s time to sit back and take a moment to reflect on the four years that have helped to shape you as a person.

Just kidding. It’s time to get all of your stuff and get the hell off campus. By 7 p.m. on graduation day, all students are expected to have vacated their dorms. Not even 12 hours after walking across the Commencement stage, the barely graduated class must walk away from the Hill without so much as one more evening to enjoy the Gambier sunset.

On one hand, this policy is understandable. We know that there may be concerns about keeping the campus staffed for an extra day or about new graduates throwing wild parties that Saturday night. We also understand that leaving campus represents a transition into the “real world” and needn’t be delayed too long.

However, we fear that this abrupt departure time adds additional stress to the final Kokosing farewell. Many students will not head home until Sunday because of the timing of graduation, so they will be left without a place to stay or keep their belongings. It also leaves little time for the lugging of luggage and packing of cars, tasks that invite chaos even without the time crunch.

We know that once we have our diploma in our hands, we may technically no longer be Kenyon students, but all that we ask is for the College to lend its newest alumni a hand and give us a place to stay for the night.

The staff editorial is written weekly by editors-in-chief Cameron Messinides ’19 and Devon Musgrave-Johnson ’19, managing editor Grant Miner ’19 and executive director Matt Mandel ’19. You can contact them at messinidesc@kenyon.edu, musgravejohnsond@kenyon.edu, minerg@kenyon.edu and mandelm@kenyon.edu, respectively.