Michael Tracey Trespasses Onto College Grounds to Give “A Voice to the Voiceless”

Featured photo courtesy of Jack Walsh.

Despite being shooed away by Mary Savage and Campus Safety officers before he could even begin his planned remarks scheduled for 4PM at Tempel Green, political commentator and roving journalist Michael Tracey managed to give a nearly two-hour talk to a gradually dwindling audience of students on the side of State Highway 32 on Monday, Sept 13. The goal was to express disdain for the measures taken by the Connecticut College administration following an unprecedented spike in cases during the second week of this academic year. 

The year had begun with relatively lax Covid-19 protocols, especially compared to a much more restrictive 2020-21 year, with no social distancing requirements outdoors and no room capacity limits (outside of the always existing fire hazard limits). The College sponsored outdoor events such as the Involvement Fair and the We Back Outside! party on Larrabee Green (on Friday, Sept 3, and Saturday, Sept, 4 respectively) both of which saw a large number of unmasked students in close quarters.

By Tuesday morning, over 50 students had tested positive for Covid-19. Dean of Students Victor Arcelus sent an email out announcing that the College had “determined that the students who had contracted the virus had been socializing in cars, in friends’ rooms or apartments, at parties or in bars without wearing a mask.” In response, the College moved into a temporary cautionary quarantine that barred indoor socializing, moved classes online, and asked students to mask up and socially distance outdoors.

As the week went on, case numbers rose to 170 positive student tests, a number greater than all the student and employee cases that occurred during the 2020-21 academic year combined. The outbreak began to receive outside attention from outlets like NBC Connecticut and The Hartford Courant, but a particular fascination was taken up by freelance journalist Michael Tracey.

Tracey sent out a series of Tweets to his two-hundred thousand followers ridiculing the idea of an almost entirely vaccinated campus being subject to Covid-19 restrictions and lambasting the situation as an excuse for neurotics “to impose their weird little tyrannical rule.” He claimed that the reason he was taking such interest in dealings with a school he had no association with was that “recent years have demonstrated that it doesn’t take long for campus-based ‘norms’ to migrate outward through society.” Following his initial Twitter thread, Tracey posted an article on his Substack on Sept 10, where he referred to the lockdown as “insane” and called Dean Arcelus a “paranoid busybody.” Tracey’s article also included anonymous quotes from Connecticut College students expressing their displeasure that the college was testing vaccinated people in the first place, with one student saying that they felt their college experience had been “hijacked” and another likening it to prison.

In a follow-up tweet to the posting of the article, The College Voice got a special mention!

On Sept. 12, Tracey posted another article on his Substack about the College containing the same sentiments as the one that came before it. This one, however, ended with a special announcement: “In light of all of this — and at the urging of numerous students who are clearly not in a position to speak on their own behalf — I will be going to the Connecticut College campus in New London, CT tomorrow, September 13, to deliver some remarks on the issue. 4pm EST at Tempel Green. We’ll see what happens!”

When I arrived on Tempel Green the following day at 3:48 PM, a small crowd had already gathered and Tracey was in the midst of being escorted away from the area by Campus Safety. Tracey later tweeted a screenshot of an email he received prior to his visit from the Office of Communications warning him not to visit campus. 

“I don’t know how you came on campus,” Director of Campus Safety Mary Savage said to Tracey as he was guided away from Tempel Green.

“I walked on,” Tracey responded.

“Okay then walk off.”

The exchange between Tracey and Savage, captured by Cork.

Tracey, along with a crowd of students made his way out the front entrance of the College. “I’m the Pied Piper. The revolutionary hero of Connecticut College,” he said into his microphone as he led the group.

His audience, however, was not largely composed of fans of Tracey. Many students spoke up to challenge the journalist on his remarks.

“If I did have COVID, I would want to know…so I like getting tested twice a week,” Jordan Groff ’22 said in response to Tracey insinuating that the testing industry is taking advantage of Covid-19 related paranoia because the “never-ending nasal swabs” are filling their pockets. 

Another student asked him to explain “in one word, why are you here?” Tracey deliberated for a moment before asking if he could use three words. After some members of the crowd seemed to begrudgingly agree, Tracey said “Giving voice to the voiceless…that’s four.” 

One student, who has asked to remain anonymous, was intent on creating a dialogue with Tracey, standing by his side and asking critical questions for the majority of his talk. “Do you think the college wants this? Do you think they want some police state? That’s not what it is. What we’re trying to do is keep people safe and contain this so it does not spread,” they said to Tracey. When the subject shifted to the reporter’s history as a guest on Fox News, this same student referred to Tracey as “Tucker Carlson’s bitch.” Despite a sense of animosity between the two, Tracey seemed to appreciate this student’s perspective enough to give them his phone number. The student, who wished to remain anonymous, tested positive for Covid-19 the following day and claims that he told Tracey over the phone that they were now a close contact. Tracey ignored this information and responded with a text asking if they had a link to the stream they took of his talk. 

Tracey later commented on this in response to an inquiring tweet made by Majority Report host Sam Seder, acknowledging that he had received the news and saying that he felt fine.

Screenshot obtained through Twitter user @lib_crusher.

Tracey has not stated if he has decided to get tested for Covid-19. 

Many students showed less interest in challenging, listening to, or debating Tracey and were more inclined to simply mock him. Loud honks from passing cars underscored the talk, occasionally coupled with extended middle fingers pointed out open car windows. Multiple students asked Tracey about getting a hair transplant in an attempt to mock his receding hairline. Two eggs were thrown at Tracey, one from a moving car and another from someone on foot. Both missed. One student was even able to trick Tracey into asking a crowd of college students, “Who’s Joe?” (If you have any inquiries on the identity of Joe feel free to approach me on campus and ask or email me at jcork1@conncoll.edu).

Absent from the entirety of Tracey’s visit was the target of much of his online ridicule, Dean of Students Victor Arcelus. This may have been due to a scheduling conflict, as that same day the Dean spoke with Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for advisement on the Covid-19 situation on-campus. In an email sent out on Sept. 14, Arcelus made no mention of Tracey’s visit and instead announced that a decline in positive cases has allowed the college to loosen restrictions, albeit remaining more cautious than the week preceding the spike. On Twitter, Tracey was quick to take credit. With this change in Conn’s alert status, Tracey has shifted his focus to liberating Brown and Georgetown from their Covid-19 policies. Maybe these campuses will be the next places to receive a visit from the Pied Piper.