With the 2015-16 school year drawing to a close, Palo Alto High School seniors have finalized their post-graduation plans, many of which involve attending an institution of higher education.

The Campanile has traditionally given seniors the option to submit the name of the school in which they intend to enroll or their other post-Paly plans to be published in the paper’s annual College Map.

However, Paly’s administration has recently voiced concerns with the dissemination of this information.

With Paly’s notoriously competitive environment in mind, some staff members have condemned the College Map as stress-inducing and therefore detrimental to students if published.

These staff members believe that the map contributes to the pressure for Paly seniors  to attend top schools following graduation and perpetuates an atmosphere that administration has attempted to eradicate over the years.

The Campanile believes that the College Map does not foster competition, but rather encourages seniors bound for higher education or alternative paths to take pride in their postgraduate plans.

In voluntarily publicizing their plans for the future, seniors are allowed the opportunity to celebrate the manifestation of their accomplishments of four years at Paly. The publishing of information pertaining to where seniors will attend college is both neutral and factual.

Rather than emphasizing the individual destinations of each alumnus, the College Map lauds the graduation of the senior class as a whole and marks the close of their years at Paly.

The publication of the map in The Campanile’s final issue is a factual list of seniors’ transition from high school to higher educational institutions or other plans, allowing the graduating class to display the results of their 13 years of effort in school.

No single college or university is elevated above another, as the primary focus of the map is to display the migration of graduating seniors from Paly to different parts of the world. It is the branching out of seniors’ future pathways that is emphasized, not the specific institutions that they will attend.

Despite the reservations of some Paly staff members to the annual publication of the College Map, The Campanile believes that the map does not foster an atmosphere of college-related stress and competition that doesn’t already exist in the school .

Instead, it encourages graduating seniors to take pride in their future and reflect on their accomplishments throughout their years at Paly.

The annual release of the map documents a valued milestone in the life of each student at Paly, and its publication should be continued without objection.