At Orono High School, the topic of open campus lunch has been thoroughly debated over the years, and this year is no exception. With the seniors and juniors gaining more responsibility and even some sophomores obtaining their drivers licenses, it seems only fair that they should have the option to leave school for lunch.

We think that the option for open campus lunch should definitely be instated. Most seniors are applying to colleges and are either already legal adults, or they are turning 18 within the year. At Orono, once a student turns 18 they can apply for a sign-out pass, allowing them to sign themselves out when they see fit. The concept of open campus lunch is more or less equivalent to this pass, except it would be open to all students, not just 18-year-olds.

Most critics of open campus lunch are the teachers or staff at Orono High School. They argue that the 24 minutes given to each lunch is not enough time to go off campus to eat, even though there are a few fast-food restaurants within close vicinity to the school such as Subway and McDonald’s. There is also Harvest Moon grocery store, Super America and Caribou Coffee that offer food options as well. The time given would be plenty of time to go and eat or grab a quick snack at any of these places.

Also, if students were allowed to leave school during their lunch time, they could go home to get food or go home to grab something they forgot. A large majority of the students that go to Orono High School live in the surrounding area of the school, so going home quickly would not be a problem. That small amount of freedom could be very helpful and utilized in different ways than just being forced to sit and eat at school.

Another argument made for open campus lunch is the few food options offered at Orono High School. There is one option for “hot lunch,” the salad bar, and a few snacks at the a la carte line. If you do not like the food option offered for the main lunch or salad, you usually do not have an option at a la carte that would qualify as a wholesome lunch. Having an open campus would open up numerous more food options.

Not only are the food options scarce, if you have the third lunch of the day, most of the already scarce food choices are gone. If you forgot to pack a lunch or didn’t have enough time, the a la carte options are usually narrowed down to a few random food items. Not to mention, these are usually not already purchased for a reason.

Even if the main lunch option is something that you are interested in eating, unless you get down to lunch in two minutes or less, the line is usually already at least 20 people long. If you wait in the line to get your lunch, you are usually limited to about 10 minutes of actual time to sit and eat. Forget about any time to relax or talk with your friends. Having open campus lunch would give you at least 10 minutes to eat your meal, a meal you actually are looking forward to eating.

If opponents still believe the idea of open campus lunch is not realistic for all, the privilege could be limited to a select few. The option to leave during lunch could be restricted to only seniors, only juniors, or to both. Also, to make this freedom more regulated, it could be required for students to get a permission slip signed by a parent or have a certain GPA in order to be eligible for open campus lunch.

Although some underclassman would be unhappy with these regulations, it would be a benefit that students could look forward to and would give students an incentive to work hard.