Photo courtesy of Gordon Alexander for The Day in 1986
On Sunday, Feb. 26, the fourth Fanning takeover began. Since then, and for many days beforehand, your The College Voice staff has been hard at work in the office making sure the Conn community and beyond remain informed. However, we are not the first group of student journalists to cover a Fanning takeover. A look into the archived editions of TCV gives us some insight into how editorial boards of the past covered their respective takeovers.
1971 Takeover
The first Fanning takeover was in early May of 1971. The events of this takeover were not covered by TCV. In fact, TCV did not even exist yet. The student newspaper of the time had been renamed Pundit from Satyagraha earlier that semester, and the last edition of that school year was published before this protest occurred, as it started in May of 1971.
1986 Takeover
The 1986 takeover was the first to be covered by student journalists in TCV. An issue of TCV found in the archives was published on May 6, 1986, 5 days after the takeover. It began at 4:55 am on May 1 with 54 students occupying the building and concluded that evening at 11:15 pm. At the conclusion, administrative senior staff and protestors signed a statement that had been negotiated over the day outlining how they would improve minority life at Conn. It took three revisions and several concessions to come to an agreement with 8 senior staff going into Fanning to meet with 12 students. This issue of TCV featured five different articles about the takeover, expressing many different opinions on the situation. However, not all writing about the ‘86 protest is in favor of the Fanning lock-in. Students wrote to the editor with stories like “Fanning sit-in a mistake?” and “Group Protest Unnecessary.” Anti-lock-in reasoning included breaking the Honor Code, believing that those who locked in should not receive punishment immunity for protesting, and arguing SGA should not have supported the protest. Students wished they had been kept in better communication during the protest about what was happening.
2016 Takeover
This was the first takeover to occur in the era of the internet, startingoccurring on May 12, 2016. One would assume that there would be plenty of online information from TCV. However, because this takeover occurred during exam week, there was not much material. The only material to be found was an article published in September 2016 to reflect on what happened. Starting with flyers talking of Connecticut College Students in Solidarity with Palestine (CSSP) in dorm buildings discussing the injustice of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the displacement of Palestinian people and the unlawful demolition of their homes. The administration, specifically the interim DIEI, responded to the student body calling these flyers a “bias incident”. The protest initially against this bias report spiraled into students advocating more grievances with administrators and the college structure. Instead, the students used an Occupy Fanning blog to gain perspective on its evolution. This blog beginning with the article “Why We’re Here” talks of motivations of the occupations soon gained no less than 24,000 views sharing with the greater community what was happening.
Photo courtesy of Hannah Foley ’23
2023 Takeover
In 2023, advancements in technology allow TCV to cover the Fanning takeover closer than ever before. Student journalists are constantly communicating via group text to cover developing stories. A website plugin to deliver live updates has been added to the website, as well as a breaking news ticker on the home page. Additionally, a print edition will be published next week containing many of the articles we have already posted online. Most of the time, your faithful TCV staff can be found working hard in the office at all hours of the day. Additionally, you may be able to find us in our satellite location, affectionately referred to as the “press box” on the second floor of New London Hall. You can also find us on Instagram at @the_collegevoice, where our social media managers are publishing shareable content multiple times a day. From live updates to daily recap articles, The College Voice is committed to keeping everyone informed.
