Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) took action soon after TSAD members entered Bendetson on Tuesday, blaring Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It." Admissions tours and information sessions were relocated to Dowling Hall, and the doors to the building were locked. Students inside were allowed to remain there, but the TUPD would not allow anyone else in - and once you were out, you were out for good.
Vanessa Dillen, a TSAD member who is actively involved outside Bendetson Hall has been handling the media aspect of the event. Detailed preparations for the event began Monday night, she said, and lasted until the actual sit-in began at 9 a.m. on Tuesday and ended at 7:30 p.m. last night.
"It's definitely draining," Dillen said while the sit-in was still occurring. "Some people slept for only an hour or a half-hour out of the past 24.
"People left to go to class, and when they come back they were told they couldn't even get their stuff out."
Students inside didn't consider classes their top priority, however. TSAD students who were locked out of Bendetson volunteered to hand in papers and other assignments for their cohorts inside and the TUPD allowed papers to be passed through the windows of the admissions building. However, Dillen said that the students were prepared to go so far as to withdraw from their classes if the situation lasted that long.
Professors seemed to have mixed opinions about their students locking themselves inside of Bendetson instead of going to class. Dillen, however, said that most were supportive - not of TSAD's position necessarily, but of their willingness to take action in support of a cause they believe in.
TSAD was, in fact, prepared for a long standoff. "Food isn't a problem. We have plenty, and it doesn't need to be cooked or anything," said Dillen at an earlier point during the sit-in. Prepared for the long haul, students inside had sleeping bags, and the ones outside pitched a tent.
Dillen, along with several other TSAD members, spent numerous hours creating a 14-page press packet outlining TSAD's position, contact information, and a history of the Tufts Christian Fellowship (TCF) situation, as well as the transcribed Tufts Community Union Judiciary (TCUJ) decision. The packet was distributed to regional media organizations Tuesday morning.
In addition to communicating with the outside world, communication between TSAD members inside and outside Bendetson was essential. For example, Dillen described a scene yesterday in which TUPD officers threatened to arrest the students inside. Those on the outside instantly whipped out their cell phones, and Dillen and the others began calling area media, such as The Boston Globe and The Boston Herald.
Despite such occurrences, other TSAD members believe that police, for the most part, have acted reasonably. "It's been respectful the entire time. The police officers respected us. We developed a really good rapport with the police," said TSAD member senior Courtney Young.
Besides eating and sleeping - which there wasn't much time for - TSAD members inside Bendetson had been dividing their activities between negotiations with administration officials, further strategizing, and even doing some schoolwork.
The process of negotiating, the number one priority of the sit-in, wasn't easy for TSAD members. Dillen said that students and administrators in the admissions conference room were haggling over singular words to be used in a possible statement. "[Both sides] will negotiate for a half-hour or an hour, and then they'll leave, and then they'll start again later [after further strategizing]," Dillen explained.
The Tuesday negotiations, though, mainly focused on the logistics involved in actually occupying Bendetson. Young explained that the first talks dealt with where TSAD members could actually go - she said that the basement and top floor were immediately closed. Phones went off, but heat, electricity, and water stayed on. The protesters were also allowed to maintain a "safe" room and a bathroom.
Even when the protesters were faced with the prospect of a long, drawn-out conflict, Dillen did not see any waning enthusiasm in the TSAD members - both inside and outside Bendetson. "People have committed themselves to this cause. Everyone's been skipping their classes and skipping sleep because we really really believe in this," she said earlier yesterday.
Kelly Wisnewski and Jacob Silberberg contributed to this article.
