The halls are more crowded than ever, and people are rushing to get food with a shorter lunch time. You can get shoved, hit, or caught in a crowd of people. But is Rocky really overcrowded?

“The halls are definitely crowded,” Cameron Jones said. “It also depends on the hallway, like San Juan is infinitely more crowded than Pawnee Grasslands.”

“They’re horrible,” said Emma Larson. “You get stuck every-which-way.”

Students might be inclined to point fingers at the large freshman and sophomore classes, but as Assistant Principal Karen Bennett explained, Rocky only enrolls up to 2’100 students every year.

“Even though our building holds 2,100, we like to be at about 2,000,” Bennett said. “We feel like that’s a good solid number so it doesn’t feel, like, super crowded and we’re able to offer all of our programming.”

“Some rooms can take up to 25 kids, some rooms can take up to 45 kids, some can take 10, it just depends on the room,” Bennett added. The fire department will come in and evaluate every few years to see how many students can fit into classrooms, then that number is combined to create Rocky’s maximum capacity. Every room capacity is determined by the fire department, and maximum class sizes are decided by the departments at the beginning of the year.

It is true that the class of 2022 and the class of 2023 are much larger than either the juniors or seniors; they aren’t unprecedented. Admissions per class are dependent on the existing classes. If a large senior class graduates, there will be a large freshman class admitted.

As of right now, there are 2,066 students at Rocky. Even though this is still below the 2,100 capacity, this means the halls will definitely be more crowded than in recent years. If you can, find hallways fewer students use. Above all, respect your fellow ‘bos, because we all have to share the hallways.