The Gryphon Gazette

By: Arden X. ‘27 & Adi G. ‘27

The Affinity/Ally Space Program is one of the most unique aspects of the Upper School at Crystal Springs. Few other schools have programmed time within a student’s day schedule for dedicated conversations about race, identity, and ethnicity. AA Spaces were created in 2022 by the then-VP of Equity and Engagement, with students being required to enroll in an AA Space that best fit their identity. A majority of students had enough options to choose an appropriate AA Space that correlated with their desires, such as White, East Asian, Latino, or LGBTQ+. Yet, after much debate among students, in 2024, school administrators made AA Spaces optional. On one hand, this preserved AA Spaces. On the other hand, students not attending AA Spaces would be put into study halls. As the 2025-26 school year marks the second year of this optional system, the Gryphon Gazette went around and anonymously interviewed students regarding their opinions about AA Spaces. The following writing is a generalized overview of the student’s comments. 

In general, roughly 56% of Crystal students are still enrolled in AA Spaces, even though they are completely optional. 

General Attitudes of AA Spaces

For the students who were enrolled in AA Spaces, the majority of them highlighted the ability to discuss aspects of one’s religious/ethnic/gender identity with a group of people that share a common background or beliefs. A lot of students highly valued this ability to have open dialogue about uncomfortable or vulnerable aspects of one’s identity, such as discrimination, societal expectations, race-related violence, or microaggressions. 

Other students didn’t necessarily see the draw of open dialogue, but still valued AA Spaces for the general vibe, food, and community. Many interviewees’ comments express a sense of belonging within a community of similar background/beliefs, even if it’s just for 30 minutes every so often. Many students also prioritized the fact that their friends were part of AA Spaces, highlighting it as another appeal of these spaces. 

On the other hand, the other 44% of Crystal students are not enrolled in AA Spaces.

Many of the complaints lodged by non-enrolled students highlighted the futility of AA Spaces; simply not a priority in their lives. It wasn’t that AA Spaces were bad—all interviewees agreed that AA Spaces were not detrimental to their lives—it just seemed like a waste of time. Many interviewees simply expressed seeing the study hall option as a better use of their time. 

How to Make AA Spaces Better

We also asked all interviewees about what to do to make AA Spaces better. Unsurprisingly, most of the recommendations were made by enrolled students. They highlighted a lack of frequency, as 30 minutes per month is not an adequate time to have deep, meaningful questions. One student commented how “[AA Spaces] would be a lot more effective and meaningful if they met more often.” In particular, AA Space leaders expressed frustration about only being able to discuss “surface-level questions.” Besides leaders, most participants complained about the lack of both strong leadership and student engagement during discussions, leading to a lack of high-quality individual experiences for students who want to passionately discuss their identity. Most non-enrolled students did not have any suggestions on how to make AA Spaces better. 

Improvement

Most enrolled students highlighted the fact that, after AA Spaces were made optional, the level of engagement significantly increased in the actual spaces. In addition, AA Space enrollment has been gradually increasing since it was made optional two years ago. 

A Thing of the Past?

One of the most surprising statistics was that 100% of the students we interviewed voted in favor of keeping AA Spaces. While we didn’t ask them about the conditionality of keeping AA Spaces, many students emphasized the importance of keeping them as optional. This was especially surprising for non-enrolled students, but many valued the other option of unstructured study hall time. 

Overall, there seems to be a bell curve of Crystal students, with one end representing students who are deeply passionate about AA Spaces and the other end representing students who are staunchly unattached to AA Spaces. However, the vast majority of Crystal students don’t have any strong emotions related to AA Spaces. The decision to attend AA Spaces is mostly a coin flip, with many students seeing this decision as inconsequential to their lives. 

On the other hand, from the perspective of the school administration, AA Spaces are a net positive, as students are happy, but don’t quite complete the original goal that administrators had in mind. In order for the administrators to align with Crystal’s core values of Kindness & Inclusion and Engaging with Enthusiasm, further changes need to be made. Even so, many students are still in favor of keeping AA Spaces. Ever since the switch to the optional policy, Crystal students have found ways to make this situation a benefit in their lives, whether it be discussing important identity issues, finding ways to hang out with friends, or getting that English essay completed during study hall.