This editorial represents the opinion of all 15 Outlook editors.
This year, the Aragon administration put a ban on student uses of food delivery services — most notably DoorDash — in order to stay in line with the school’s closed-campus policy, which prevents any visitors from entering the campus without a school-issued permit.
The Outlook agrees that the school’s closed-campus policy is fair and effective, and should be regarded as such. Therefore, if that means that individual students cannot order DoorDash for lunch, so be it. For the same reasons the school doesn’t let parents, friends or any other non-students on campus without proper approval, food delivery drivers should be required to follow the same set of regulations, especially since virtually anyone can become a driver for a company like DoorDash — according to the DoorDash website, essentially anyone older than 18 with a year of driving experience and a smartphone can work for the company, provided that they undergo a background check (although there are no specifications on how the background checks are considered for potential drivers).
We understand the concern over an influx of strangers and the chaos that can be caused on campus during school hours, and agree that this could potentially be dangerous to students and faculty alike. While we appreciate the admin prioritizing its students’ safety, we feel a blanket ban of food delivery services is unnecessary.
Take, for example, a club hosting an end-of-year party. Why should students or parents be required to run to Pizza My Heart to order pizzas, salad, and drinks for a large group of high schoolers, and then haul it into their car before trekking it back to school, when this can be done at the push of a button? Or why should the families of tennis players have to bring snacks and drinks to the players at school before each match when DoorDash will willingly do that work itself?
Since the Outlook sees no harm in having one or two DoorDash drivers on campus at a time, we are suggesting that the admin create a form that can be filled out by clubs or teams to notify school officials that they plan on ordering food delivery services. This form would give the admin a one-week notice that there will be a stranger on campus, and the admin would of course have the power to decline the order. This form would serve to reduce the risk of having too many strangers on campus at a time, and would also limit the number of orders at a time, thus de-clogging the office during lunchtime hours.
We feel that, if limited to student organizations only (individual students would not have the ability to order food for themselves), this form would create a better solution to the food delivery problem than simply blanket-banning the entire service.
