As many students and staff may have noticed, the new hall pass system, Minga, has been put in place to monitor hallway activity and student behavior. However, this new resource has grown beyond what both students and faculty expected.
As of March 10th, 2026, Minga has been officially added to the college application process. Students with many out-of-classroom and bathroom visits, and especially those who frequently go over their 5-minute time slot, may not be accepted or even considered when applying for certain colleges. Ivy League schools such as Harvard or Princeton value this “measure” of personal dedication to class, along with numerous other schools internationally, such as Oxford. College counselor Jean Hernandez figures this is the university’s way of “learning the character of a student along with their beneficial or harmful habits”.
Senior Emilia Smith said she “didn’t expect this to happen” and “doesn’t like that this should be considered along with grades and extracurricular activities,” stating she thinks it’s “dumb that this may matter more than our GPA to colleges”. However, English teacher Julie Senta said she thinks it’s “great to have something that shows a student’s habits and faults,” saying it’s “important to know how much the student cares about class”.
A large amount of complaints have risen from this, with students claiming that a “weak bladder” should not affect their chances in the future. Surprisingly, some teachers are also unhappy with this new addition, claiming it to be taxing on their students’ mental health along with being unfair for advanced students that may “drink lots of water”.
Along with just teachers and students complaining, the health room nurses Natalia Berin and Jake Jacobson claimed that it is “unhealthy to not be using the bathroom during the day. It means dehydration which can ultimately hinder learning”. The health room has been giving out bags of ice during learning hours and have told parents to assure their students have access to water during the day.
Despite backlash from a majority of the students and teachers, there has been talk of removing bathrooms from the school in attempts to manage hallway activity. Their line of reasoning was this: “Students typically claim to be using the bathroom when outside of class. However, we have found this to hardly be true, seeing kids abusing their Minga passes to see friends and get out of class. To this we had a simple solution: remove the bathrooms in order to catch liars who exploit their teachers’ trust and kindness.”
Regardless of complaints, valid arguments, and retaliation, Minga will be used to determine the character of a student. It will measure how dedicated they are and how motivated they are to learn. Colleges around the world will use this as a guide of whom to accept into their schools.
