Photo courtesy of Payton Ferris ’23
The rising unpopularity of President Katherine Bergeron (KB) and the Board of Trustees has been brewing for the past month and finally boiled over with the fourth official Fanning occupation in Conn’s history taking place on Sunday night. The following day, crowds of students gathered outside of Fanning to support the lock-in and to protest against KB’s actions and to fight for more DIEI support and resources. The Students Voices of Equity (SVE) have stated that they will continue to protest until their demands are met. In the midst of the student activism, the Admissions Office is getting ready to bring in the new Conn class of 2027.
Despite the negative press that the protests have shined on KB and the College, the Admissions Office has been encouraging tour guides to be transparent towards prospective students and families about what has been going on. “I approached tours by being transparent about the situation on campus and staying ahead of what was happening by telling families what was going on at the beginning of tours, explains tour guide Jocelyn Lewis ‘24. “Most of the time the families don’t have additional questions but appreciate being told what is happening. The admissions office has not given us talking points and don’t want us to hide the situation.” In a previous The College Voice article, the Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Andy Strickler was seen and quoted at the student protests on Monday, stating “I am a fervent purist when it comes to the constitution. This is what democracy looks like. I support the constitution when it comes to all sides. I’m a purist when it comes to free speech. This is democracy in action.”.
Despite the lock-in, tours are still proceeding this week, but tour guides were given a choice to skip out on giving tours in solidarity with the students protests without any consequences. “Tours are still happening this week, but tour guides were told that we do not have to give tours if we don’t want to and there will be no consequences. We were still even paid if we chose not to give tours,” says tour guide Davi Schulman ‘25. “From my understanding, a lot of tour guides are not working this week in solidarity with the movement,” says Lewis. Both Schulman and Lewis have opted out on giving tours this week.
One tour guide who wishes to be anonymous gave a tour on Monday during the Fanning lock-in. “I really went back and forth about whether I should give it. Contributing in any way I possibly can to this movement is really important to me, and I decided that giving a tour was a really good way to bring more outside awareness and publicity to what is going on within the Conn community.” In regards to how families were addressed about the protests they stated, “I was fully honest with them on what was going on campus, I showed them all of the chalking, posters, and flyers as we walked around campus. I shared my opinions on KB and how I thought it was best for her to resign. I also shared how proud I am to be in a community who is taking this event so seriously, and is working extremely hard to make meaningful change.”
In regard to if there were any changes to the tour, the only main changes were that the group could not go inside Fanning and the tour met at Cro instead of Horizon House due to the building being locked. “I walked them to the door of [Fanning] and let them take a look through the doors to see what was going on. They found it very exciting, and were happy to see the amount of support the movement had garnered. One family already knew classes were being boycotted as they had been following along online, and were very supportive of the movement.” When asked about how the prospective families responded to the protests, the tour guide responded that there were no negative reactions to what was happening. “[Families] found it very exciting, and were happy to see the amount of support the movement had garnered. One family already knew classes were being boycotted as they had been following along online, and were very supportive of the movement”.
Overall, every student shows solidarity with these protests in different ways. For tour guides, showing support could be to take off the rose-colored image that KB and the BoT have constantly pushed for Conn to look like. “I wanted to have the opportunity to show prospective students what is going on, as I am sure it is something that the President and BoT do not want. If I could push back against the administration and their policies even if it was in a small way, I wanted to.”
