the locker room, continued: the machine forecasting its own burnouts

The Big Buddy System's institutional underside: Buddies feed the prorectors data on which little kids are "shaky in terms of resolve, capacity for suffering and stress, physical punishment, homesickness, deep fatigue," so Tavis can forecast attrition and set next term's admissions numbers. The academy is running an actuarial model on children's bodies and nerve — "not everyone's cut out for what's required of you here" — the human cost of the regimen quantified in advance as slots to refill. (The Big-Buddy communication/confidant substance routes to communication-solipsism — see Routed.)