Photo courtesy of Catja Christensen ’23
The last few weeks at The College Voice have been some of the most intense and fun days I’ve had in college. There’s a saying at Conn when you have an experience that makes you feel like Connecticut College is your home. We call it your “Camel Moment.” And while I’ve had many over the last four years, this experience might top them all.
It all started the evening of Feb. 7 when a picture of the flyer announcing Dean Rodmon King’s resignation was sent in our editors’ group chat. The group immediately leaped into action, contacting any sources we had in the DIEI office, getting pictures of the flyers hanging on campus, and trying to track down who was posting them to get their side of the story. We learned there would be a student gathering the following night where more information would be shared. We usually distribute our paper edition on Wednesdays when they come in from the printer, but we held this edition so we could include the activities from the first gathering. The entire editorial staff set to work researching the Everglades Club, the history of the DIEI office at Conn, and anything else we thought could be related. After Wednesday night’s meeting, a marathon writing, editing, and printing session commenced. Just after midnight, we had produced a single-page, double-sided account of the recent activities and inserted them by hand into 300 papers. There was a feeling of satisfaction, like we had done our part to keep the campus community informed. Little did we know what the coming weeks would bring.
Over the next several days, we kept our ears open to hear what our friends and professors were saying, trying to get an idea of what could come next. Many departments sent out statements condemning the Everglades fundraiser and/or supporting King’s resignation. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who responded to our call to forward those letters/emails to us. We attempted to stick to our normal biweekly publication cycle, but that all went out the window quickly. Before the Board of Trustees held their open forums, we published pieces on the members of the BoT, the College’s mission statement, and the faculty response to the campus ongoings.
On Feb. 25, we published our open letter to President Bergeron. Every member of the editorial staff had the opportunity to sign the letter, but no one was forced to. At that moment, we took our stance, not just as students of the College, but also as a staff. We understood that it meant we no longer had an unbiased perspective, and while we did continue to make our best effort to give factual information, we had a stake in the outcome of the protests. We care about the students being affected by the lack of DIEI resources. We heard and believe the testimonies of our fellow students. Ultimately, we decided it was irresponsible of us to not use our platform to make a statement in support of the students, faculty, and staff who were putting themselves out there to better our school.
On Feb. 26, the TCV staff met to divvy up responsibilities, because at the time we thought there would be three separate buildings being occupied. That night, we watched as chaos broke loose on campus, showing us how much the campus supported the movement. Some of our reporters worked to help continue the chaos, others made sure people were safe, and a few almost got accidentally locked in Fanning while trying to help move supplies in. It was a very intense night that ended with another article published and a debrief in our office. Leaving the office that night, there was a collective thought of, “Here we go.”
I can’t speak for everyone, but I couldn’t sleep that night. Protests were happening the next day, we had several articles in the works, and what was intended to be a very organized lock-in had turned into full chaos to get just one building. Student Voices for Equity (SVE) had announced TCV as its main publication, as well as asked us to help contact external news organizations to get them to cover the protest. We are a staff of 20 students, so many of us were multitasking with taking photos, reaching out to current or potential contacts, writing articles, and publishing our pieces online. On the first day of protests, we launched a “Live Updates” page as well, which proved very hard to keep updated, but it was an attempt to connect people not on campus to our efforts.
Ten days of around-the-clock coverage really takes a toll on a person. We did our best to give people time off; for example, I took the “snow day” to do my work remotely and give myself a break, but for all of us, there was an air of wanting to help and wanting to get this right. Every article written was read by at least three other people. We weren’t perfect, we know we made mistakes, but that happens when trying to turn out 4-6 articles a day.
From Feb. 9 to Mar. 9 we published over 50 articles. We interviewed dozens of people, took thousands of photos, spent hundreds of hours staring at our computers – we even lived through a potential bomb threat happening right outside our office – and we made a difference. We helped with this movement and we are proud of our coverage. We know this fight isn’t over; the resignation of Katherine Bergeron is just the beginning of restructuring our school to support all of its students, staff, and faculty, but it’s a start.
Running a school newspaper isn’t easy. All of us appreciate the support that our faculty, staff, and fellow students have shown during this time. We appreciate the alumni and parents who have shown their support as well. We care about our school and our newspaper a lot. We don’t get paid. We don’t even have enough money to print a biweekly newspaper 5 to 6 times a semester. We have to fundraise by selling t-shirts/stickers and ads (all of which can be purchased by emailing thecollegevoice@conncoll.edu) or else we have to pray that the Student Government Association will help us.
There are many things we can’t talk about yet related to the protests for the safety of those involved, but above all, just know we did our best to report the stories as they came in and get the facts right. I believe we did that, and I’m beyond proud to be a part of The College Voice and the Connecticut College community.
Going forward, we are keeping comments off on these posts as they quickly became nasty and unproductive during this protest. If you have a question or comment that you’d like to send to The College Voice you can reach us at thecollegevoice@conncoll.edu and we’ll do our best to get back to you.
