Hot Take: Make Study Hall mandatory for all Webb students
Of all the new changes Webb rolled out for the 2025–2026 school year, none has provoked more conversation than the mandatory freshman study hall. From Sunday to Thursday, 7:30 to 9 p.m., ninth graders gather in the dining hall without their phones as part of a program meant to build discipline and focus.
While most freshmen aren’t exactly lining up to praise this academic experiment, Alexander Efuetngu (‘29) has a different take: mandatory study halls should include everyone.
“A lot of freshmen complain about having to go,” Alexander said. “But I think older students actually need it just as much. They procrastinate too.”
He even has a plan.
“Freshmen and sophomores could meet in the dining hall, and juniors and seniors could use the library,” he said. “That way everyone has a space.”
For Alexander, study hall isn’t a punishment but a framework for success. He points out that upperclassmen often stay up until 2 a.m. struggling with unfinished work, proof that good study habits are just as important later in high school.
His solution? Make it universal. If Webb really wants students to succeed, study hall shouldn’t just be for ninth graders—it should be for everybody.
Hot Take: Gym Hill is not that bad
Gym Hill is the steep incline that climbs from the lower campus up to Webb’s athletic facilities, including Les Perry Gymnasium, weight room, and Faculty Field. At Webb, it carries a reputation: exhausting, miserable, the bane of every student’s walk. But Melissa Mani, Assistant Librarian, doesn’t see what all the fuss is about. To her, it’s really just… not that bad.
“For one, it gets your heart rate up,” Ms. Mani said. “It kind of makes me think about life. Sure, it feels a little long sometimes, but it warms you up for your day.”
In her opinion, the reputation, instead of the climb, does most of the work.
“When you first get here, you’re taught to believe it’s awful before you’ve even walked it yourself,” she said. “People complain because that’s the expectation.”
Rather than seeing Gym Hill as an obstacle, Ms. Mani sees it as a natural part of Webb life—no different from walking between classes or climbing stairs in a building.
“It’s not some epic challenge you have to ‘survive’ every day; it’s just walking uphill, and honestly, it’s over in a couple of minutes,” she said.
While students may continue to dread Gym Hill out of tradition, Ms. Mani encourages them to take a step back and put it in perspective.
“It’s manageable,” she said. “If anything, it’s a reminder that sometimes the things we fear most aren’t actually as big a deal as we make them out to be.”
Hot Take: Alamo should be a girls’ dorm
Right in the middle of campus, Alamo stands as one of Webb’s most well-known and oldest dorms: an all-singles space for male-identifying students that has been home to boys for as long as anyone can remember. But Gianna Rabida (‘27) thinks it’s time for a change—Alamo should be for the girls.
“I walk by Alamo all the time, and it’s just empty,” Gianna said. “If girls had Alamo, we’d bring it to life and do stuff like picnics, dinners, fairy lights, study nights on the Grotto. It would feel like the center of campus.”
The Grotto, a grassy area surrounded by chairs and couches in the middle of Alamo’s open space, has the potential to be a lively community hub. Gianna believes that girls would transform it completely.
“Boys already have so many single dorms, like Alamo and some upper dorms,” she said. “Meanwhile, girls only have Jameson and Appleby.”
She even pointed out the difference in dorm size. “The rooms in Alamo are humongous compared to Appleby; it’s not fair that we get smaller rooms,” Gianna said.
Her final thought? “Give Alamo to the girls, we’d turn it into the heart of Webb.”
Hot Take: Get rid of Free Block
For sophomores, juniors, and seniors, free block is supposed to be a blessing—a period built into the schedule to relax, catch up on homework, or just breathe. Even freshmen get a taste of it second semester when their Freshman Seminar turns into a free block. But for Braylon Oglesby (‘27), the whole idea is overrated. He thinks Webb should just get rid of free block.
“It’s honestly only convenient in the mornings,” Braylon said. “If I have it in the middle of the day, I can’t sleep because I still have class after, and I can’t leave because it’s still school hours. I just end up sitting there doing nothing.”
Braylon thinks the schedule would run smoother without it.
“They should just get rid of free block and do late start,” he said. “At least then, the break would actually feel like a break.”
He also pointed out that Webb currently has seven blocks total, with three classes a day, which makes the rotation uneven.
“If we got rid of free block, it would be six blocks instead of seven,” Braylon said. “That would make the schedule more balanced: two classes a day means you can go deeper into each subject, there’d be fewer transitions, it would give us so much mental clarity. Plus, six just divides evenly. Seven doesn’t.”
For Braylon, Free block doesn’t give us time; it just steals it.
