When the school finally opened up in the summer, the highly anticipated gym floor remodel was quite underwhelming, as the only noticeable change was the significantly lighter floors, which made it more of an eyesore than an improvement.

     We’ve had previous renovations, like the cafeteria, lecture hall and Performing Arts Center’s (PAC) seats. The cafeteria remodel was the best one out of the plethora of changes that came in the last year. At least I can confidently say that the renovation done to the gym wasn’t worse than the sudden addition of a “foyer” to the PAC entrance.

     Besides school renovations, some of the school’s policies have also been changed.

     One that snuck past students was the change for language credit requirements. For years, the policy on language courses was that two foreign language courses were required to go straight to a four- year institution in North Carolina. However, college applicants no longer need those two courses to go to a four-year college. Instead, they need to have two extra English, science, math, social studies or computer science courses in place of those language classes, according to the official University of North Carolina (UNC) System website. Students with a weighted Grade Point Average (GPA) of 2.5 to 2.8 are also now required to submit their ACT and SAT results to the college they’re applying for.

     I’m glad that this new policy change happens to come right before my senior year, so now I don’t have to struggle through another Spanish class.

     While you don’t necessarily need two language courses to go straight to a four-year college, most colleges under the UNC System still highly recommend that you take those courses.

More locally, Rose has implemented new tardy policies. Everyone has heard about it from their advisory teachers about a million times by now. This new rule adds that people who arrive five minutes late to class unexcused can not just grab a pass anymore, but have to go straight to choice for the entire class period, and will be marked absent.

For those who don’t know, “choice” is in- school suspension for a single class period, but can increase based on the offense.

     Now, it’s fair for someone to get a tardy every once in a while, especially for those traveling far from class to class, like from the 100 hall to the 800 hall. I even get a tardy here and there. I believe it’s completely unfair to miss an entire class period because you’re a couple of minutes late to class. Most teachers don’t start their lessons until around 10 minutes after class starts, so there’s no point in getting sent to choice when I have to wait a few more minutes for the lesson to begin, even if I’m late. I can already see the choice room being piled up with offenders.

     Although some changes are better than others, I know that many more are to come. I’m excited to see what else is in store for the school.