Food goes on the left side and get your sleeping bags out right away...
Okay, lets start--‘aint no power like the power of the people ‘cause the power of the
people don’t stop!
SAY WHAT?!
‘aint no power like the power of the people ‘cause the power of the people don’t stop!

 We arrive at Bendetson Hall with food, clothing, sleeping bags, and toiletries in
hand.  An admissions officer jumps up and barricades the front door with his body. 
“Stop--You guys can’t come in here,” he says.  At the head of the pack, Liz looks at
Adam and says, “We’re goin’ in.”  Adam pries the man’s fingers off of the door frame
and we march forth.  Backpacks, sleeping bags, and potato chip bags pile onto the
expensive waiting area carpet.  Someone shouts, “Okay, let’s go!”
  Where are the stairs?
   How do I get to the bathroom?
    Where are the letters?
     Who is passing out cookies?
      Who’s hanging the banner?
 A blizzard of confusion, commotion, excitement, and fear envelops all of us.  I
hear Mike shout in frustration, “Where are the stairs?”  I put down my briefcase and
motion for him to follow me.  We push through various doors, frightening the little old
ladies working in their offices.  “There they are,” I say.  We rustle up the stairs with a
banner dragging behind us.  Courtney stands at the top of the staircase and warns us that
the workers are upset about Laurie climbing out the window to place a banner out over
the balcony.  We thank her and move on.  The Bendetson workers were left disilliusioned
with our strict organization.  They became disoriented and they just begin to congregate
in a central location on the top floor, as if they were on a coffee break.  Mike and Laurie
are tying the knots while I standby to make sure no one gives them a hard time.  I see the
director of admissions go to his office, pick up the phone, and dial some numbers.  I
quickly leave them to hide just outside his door to listen in:

 Hello?...  Yes, uhh, we have a bit of a problem here over at Bendetson...  Well,
 there’s a bunch of kids running around the building screaming and banging pots,
 and they’re causing a big ruckus...  Uhh, I dunno, 30 or 40 of them... Something
 about the nondiscrimination policy--listen, I don’t know what to do.

 A elderly African American staff worker approaches me.  “Are you waiting for
him?” she says.  “No” I reply.  “He is on the phone, you’ll have to wait outside,” she
says, as she attempts to close the door.  I sit down in the doorway and say “I don’t think
I’ll be doing that.  This is just as much our space as it is yours now.”
 When the head honcho at admissions is through, I get up and check on the banner. 
When I look out the window I see two Tufts police cars driving ACROSS the academic
quad, over the manicured grass, towards the building.  I bolt down the stairs and join my
fellow sitters in singing and chanting.  
‘aint no power like the power of the people ‘cause the power of the people don’t stop
 There were some ‘important looking’ people outside the front doors of
Bendetson.  Police entered the building and permeated the area.  Emily was standing
guard at the bathroom upstairs, Laurie and Dan were posted in the basement level
bathrooms.  Everything seemed normal even after the police scattered around the
building.  A door closes that fed into the hallway that led to the stairwell.  It was propped
to allow visibility between the main group and Emily in the bathroom.  No one noticed
the door closing, and I paid no mind to it... until we hear a scream, “Help, guys, come
quick!”  Several of us rush over to the bathroom where a police officer had forced
himself into the facility and was attempting to remove Emily from her post.  We then
realized that too many of us had split from the main group and only four people stayed
with Emily.  The four of us sit down around the bathroom entrance to support Emily. 
Geoff says slyly, “Excuse me sir, the lady needs to deficate.”  After a good chuckle we
begin to sing We’re not gonna take it.
 Provost Sol Gittleman enters through the door that we had just come through
shortly after we had sat down.  “Alright everybody, listen up!  I said shut up!  Listen, I
have something to say!” he exclaims.  When the lobby area refuses to quiet down, Sol
becomes furious--he turned beet red.  After some more yelling we all quiet down.  Before
he begins speaking I remind everyone that he could be lying or trying to intimidate us. 
“Are you calling me a liar!?” he shouts.  I reply with “No, I am just saying that you could
be.”  Sol continues with his emotional ranting, scolding us and telling us that the
President will be very disappointed with us when he hears about what we have done--of
course the President will be disappointed!  Thea Lavin gave Sol a copy of our pledge of
nonviolence to assure him that the integrity of the building would be upheld and
protected.  Sol in turn gave us a copy of the page in the Pachyderm that outlined the rules
that we were breaking.  Delightful.
 Later, I found out that the banners had been confiscated from the balcony because
we are not allowed to hang things from buildings.  Besides that, things calmed down a
little bit after Sol leaves.  The bathroom is secured and the Dean of Students, Bruce
Reitman, arrives to negotiate with us.  Bruce is a short, balding, white man with a mild
demeanor and an all-around ‘nice guy.’  He will act as the messenger for the President
henceforth.  Bruce is accompanied by Chuck Lenero, TUPD Chief of Special Operations,
a tall, stocky guy with a fetish for cigars and black TUPD turtlenecks.  The two enter the
negotiating room with our two negotiators, Adam Carlis and Thea Lavin.  In the
meantime, the rest of the crew is dancing around the lobby area, banging pots and pans
while singing “We get our policy, you get Bendetson!”  Adam and Thea emerge from the
meeting room for a 2-minute break.  Adam informs us that the negotiations are going
well thus far and that we should keep making noise because it is definitely putting
pressure on them.  Of course we continue our party throughout the duration of the
meeting.  When Bruce and Chuck left the confines of Bendetson, we had a meeting to
discuss what had occurred behind those closed doors.  Adam and Thea had secured full,
24-hour access to the lobby area, the meeting room, the kitchen, the two bathrooms on
the main level, and the bathrooms downstairs in the basement.  The third floor was made
off limits due to the classified data that was up there.  The same reason was given for our
limitations of the basement and the one office on the main floor.  We were told that the
President was away on business and would try to cut his trip short to come to Tufts
tonight.  The issue was not discussed in detail, only the logistics of the building.  At this
point we were happy that we had secured the building and that none of us were in any
immediate harm.  It was the calmest time since we had entered.  All was good.
 By now, our outside support was gaining.  We had a table set up outside that
remained there until the end of the sit-in.  Vanessa Dillon and Jesse Alderman lead the
way with the compilation of press packets and contacting the media ASAP.  They were
able to get a hold of the Boston Globe, Herald, Phoenix, the Somerville Journal, the
Chronicle of Higher Education, Channel 5 and plenty of other media outlets.  Others
passed out flyers and helped put up banners that read “We’re still here,” “Where’s our
policy?,” and “We get our policy, you get Bendetson.”  They strung heart-shaped
inspirational messages from the lampposts around Bendetson, clearly defining our turf. 
We clearly would not have been as effective had those people not been so committed and
supportive outside of the building.
 The university sent a public relations representative to give their side of the story
to the press.  He banned any press from entering the building.  The Boston Globe
correspondant attempted to enter the building, but was held up on basis that there were
no cameras allowed inside.  The man had no camera on him.
 Bruce is back.  And I don’t mean the Boss.  He was welcomed by happy,
screaming, stomping, clapping protesters and entered the meeting room once again with 
Chuck, Thea, and Adam, but this time he brought along the Director of Public Safety. 
During the meeting, Bruce and Chuck informed Thea and Adam that the building would
be closed for the evening at 5pm.  It was well before 5pm at the time, but they then
proceeded to lock all entrances to the building without warning.  We had been moving to
and from the building freely throughout the day and when the police locked the doors,
three students who had been in the building with us and had intentions of spending the
night were locked out, with their belongings still inside.  Of course this was outrageous
and we called them on it.  Lee Vigilant’s Social Movements class had secured a meeting
place with us in Bendetson, but the class was locked outside.  Many of the students
stayed to find out more about the situation and to support what Lee later called “the
fabulous four.”
 Bruce and Chuck wanted to meet with all of us.  The Director of Public Safety
and another TUPD officer accompanied the dangerous duo.  They informed us that we
were currently not breaking any laws, but that at 5pm in the evening we would officially
be considered trespassers.  Bruce attempted to persuade us to leave the building and
accept a meeting with the President in Ballou Hall the next day.  Of course we responded
with disgust citing that a sit-in ending in a meeting just like the ones we have had with
the President throughout the semester will do us no justice.  They also threatened with
action on the grounds of disturbing the peace.  We immediately accused them of foul
play.  The police had locked out three essential members of our student action unfairly
and without adequate warning.  We said we would be unable to reach consensus without
them.  Many members of TSAD vocalized their disapproval of the administration and
police’s actions.
 The administrators and police left, leaving behind two options:
· Leave the building and meet with the President in Ballou Hall tomorrow
· Stay in the building and be possibly dragged out in cuffs
They promised to return shortly after 5pm with a warning of trespassing.  We had an
extensive meeting that afternoon, discussing the possibilities of the night ahead of us. 
We all had decided that we would not leave the building and possibly risk arrest.  Many
of believed strongly that the administration was bluffing.  If they tried to arrest us the
headlines would read:  
Tufts Students Arrested for Defending Gay Rights
This is certainly not the image Tufts wants to portray of it’s self--especially after the
strong Boston Phoenix article pointing to hate crimes and administrative fence sitting.
 They returned.  Chuck warned us about how “this action could follow you the rest
of your lives.”  He officially warned us that we were in fact trespassing and could be
arrested at any point in time.  He strongly urged us to leave the building.  We told them
exactly what we had decided and that were not going to be leaving voluntarily unless our
demands were met.  They were powerless.
 Bruce met with all of the students in private.  In this meeting we told him exactly
what we wanted, why were not leaving, and all of our concerns.  We reiterated, spelled
out, and reemphasized all of our talking points that had been proposed earlier.  Thea
Lavin was our spokesperson that delivered the address that we had sculpted prior to the
meeting.  A sense of pessimism was the common sentiment among the group when
dealing with administrators—and with good reason, given what they have done all
semester and asking us to trust them after locking our friends out.  Thea gave a strong
presentation.  The reason we approached the meeting in such an aggressive fashion was
because we wanted to take the initiative.   Prior meetings had an agenda set by the
administration and we wanted to control this dialogue.  It turned out to be more of a
monologue.  Bruce’s response is an interesting reaction to analyze psychologically,
politically, and sociologically.  
 Bruce spoke very quietly, slowly, clearly, and seemingly honestly.  He came off as
trying to be our friend, or “playing good cop to Chuck’s bad cop image” as one TSAD
member put it.  Many of us knew where Bruce stood on this issue before walking into the
building.  Bruce is a supporter of the issue and a strong proponent of student opinion.  He
reminded us of this in his first words.  He commented on something that Chuck had said
earlier; Chuck had warned us that this action could affect us for the rest of our lives. 
Bruce openly disagreed with him.  Whether that was a planned ‘good cop-bad cop’
scenario, that is impossible for us to know.  He continued by telling us of how he once
took over Ballou Hall in protest back in the 70’s and that he sympathizes with us.  “I was
once in your shoes” he said.  He was telling us that President DiBiaggio is a good man
and he is morally torn on this issue.  He expressed optimism for our cause and thought
that DiBiaggio would in fact state that one’s self-acceptance of one’s identity is
understood in the nondiscrimination policy.  Bruce was not helpful in explaining why the
President was lagging in affirming this fact if he did indeed believe this.  He explained
that we could walk out of the building right now, meet with the President tomorrow and
given the events that have occurred, he would understand and finally affirm what the
policy is meant to say.  He went on to say that even if he did not affirm the policy, that
another course of action could be taken—for example, we could walk right back into
Bendetson.  
 To this proposal, I was quite cynical.  I expressed to Bruce that I felt that the
President, for whatever reason, is ignoring our request.  We have met with him five times
over the course of the semester with no progress.  We have rallied over 500 students and
faculty members, but the President’s comment on the rally was nothing more than “I am
heartened.”  We expressed ourselves to him via email, posters, flyers, banners, letters
from parents, viewpoints, letters to the editor, rallies, and now by occupying the
admissions building.  He has not listened thus far; we must force his hand and make him
listen.  This is an issue of civil rights and it is important to many people, not just on this
campus, but on campuses across the nation, and also to people off campus and their
struggles for equality.  Why would we leave now—at the pinnacle of our struggle—and
trade it all for another lousy meeting with the President.  It makes no sense.
 To this he replied simply that he has been in our shoes before and that he
sympathizes with those sentiments.  He gave us his support on our issue and was even
encouraged to see that we cared so much about it to risk arrest and our academic lives for
it.  He said that he would think no less of us and that the issue would be no less important
if we did in fact decide to stay in the building.  He went on to say that he might even
think even more highly of us if we did.
 At the meeting’s end, everyone thanked Bruce for his honest and mild demeanor
and for siding with us.  It was clear to him and to us that we were going to stay in the
building and that the possibility of arrest over that night was slim.  We discussed what
Bruce had said.  Most of us believed every word that he said and trusted him.  There was
another party, of which I belonged to, that felt that although Bruce is probably on our
side and may even like us, he is still an administrator.  He wants what the administration
wants—he wants Bendetson back.  To deny this is to be naïve.  We also felt that we
needed to be on our toes.  It is very easy, because Bruce is such a ‘nice guy’ that he may
trick us into something that he makes sound very reasonable, but is actually something
that is undesirable for us.  
 Regardless of what we thought of Bruce, we all decided to go ahead with our
original plan—to spend the night in Bendetson.  We decided that at least two people
should be up keeping post of police and/or other threats to the group.  We followed this
up with a short meeting and had dinner.  Dinner consisted of salsa and chips, peanut
butter sandwiches, and vegan cookies.  This was illustrative of the constituency… college
students.  Right before dinner though we executed a little nonviolence training roleplay
in the event that we were to be arrested.  It was a crash course on going limp when
touched.  We had some fun with this one.  One of our protestors had to leave at this
point--Geoff.  He had a record in Philadelphia and given the risk of arrest, Geoff decided
to bail on the action.  
 Most of the night was calm, talking to our friends through the screens in the front
windows.  Some people did school work on laptops, others conversed on cell phones, a
game of hearts broke out, and even a battle of chess ensued.
 A friend of ours, the director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered
(LGBT) Center, Judith Brown  came to meet with us briefly late in the night.  The police
had allowed her in the building in the hopes of hastening our departure from the building. 
She came and met with some of us about possible outcomes.  One recommendation was
to leave with the creation of an LGBT Task Force that would make sure that a proper
statement is released and oversee the process.  Another possibility was to change the
wording in a letter that the President had written to 22 of the faculty, which showed
significant progress, but was far from what we wanted.  I entered the meeting rather late.  
Stacey summarized what had been said and there had been some points of contention.  I
gave my comments on the Task Force idea rather bluntly:  “Why doesn’t he just say the
one sentence that we want him to say and we’ll be on our way—none of this bureaucratic
Task Force business.”  The comment was received with agreement and laughter.  I then
realized that it was Judith Brown that had suggested the idea and felt bad that I had
ridiculed it.  I then apologized for the manner in which I expressed myself, but it is what I
truly believe.  There was no real outcome that came from that meeting.  If the intentions
of the administration in sending her in there were to get us out of the building with a
Task Force, then they failed miserably.
 There was one police disruption during the night.  When the majority of the group
decided to go to bed, the police officers
[wanted to use adam’s radio]
 on post brought in two radios.  The volume was cranked up near max, purposely I am
sure.  This was quite unprofessional of the police and we would not tolerate such a
disturbance.  Lou immediately approached the officer with the radio.
Lou:   Excuse me.  <long pause> Ahem, I said excuse me… Sir?  SIR?  <pause>
HEY!
Officer: <with a look of disgust> Yeah?
Lou:  Could you please turn down the volume on your radio?  People are trying to
sleep.
Officer:  I could
Lou:  Could you please do so then.
Officer:  I could
Lou: <catching on to his childish, unprofessionalism>  WOULD you?
Officer:  Oh!  <pause>  no.
Lou: <with a tone of annoyance> ok!

“Adam!” he yelled.  “Would you please call Chucky on the cell and tell him to get those
radios out of here?”  Adam proceeded to call Chuck.  Within 10 minutes, an officer
arrived on the scene, removed one of the radios and ordered the officers to turn the other
down to background music.  In the meantime, we danced and sang to the music that they
were blaring from their radios to assure them that they would not get the best of us on
this one.  They didn’t.
 I didn’t sleep very much that night.  I didn’t sleep very much the night before
either.  I had received 2 hours and 45 minutes of sleep in the past two nights.  I stayed up
to help prepare for the action the night prior and stayed up during the night to keep an eye
out for trouble.  Luckily there were people outside in solidarity with us to keep me
company, as well as another person who stayed up with me.
 The TSAD supporters outside of the building had pitched a tent.  There were
permanent people that would stay the entire night as well as people who came and left on
shifts.  They were amazingly well prepared and it was very heartening for us to see the
community support.
 The night was a long one, but the day proved to be longer.  We planned to awaken
the sleeping bodies inside Bendetson at 9AM, but Bruce arrived with Chuck promptly at
8:30AM.  As soon as they arrived we began to wake people up.  It took us a minute or
two, but we all met in the negotiating room shortly after Bruce’s arrival.
 Bruce had come to inform us that the President would like to meet with us today. 
He would only meet with a maximum of six of us.  To this we agreed.  He also pleaded
with us to consider reducing the noise level that we create.  To this we did not agree.  He
left with no promises of us silencing our voices, but with us only considering to do so.
 This was a topic of heated debate.  In a meeting that took 3 hours to reconcile, we
discussed whether or not we should consider limiting our noise levels.  At the beginning
of the conversation, most people said that they were willing to give up noise with a few
people adamantly refusing to give up this liberty.  If it had been a vote, we would not
have made noise, which speaks to the effectiveness of our decision-making process of
consensus.  By the near end of the meeting, most people were willing to continue with
the noise.  One person had strong concerns speaking to the implications on how the
community might view us and how we are perceived by the administration if we did
make noise.  By the time that she was singled out as the only vocal dissenter in the group,
lots of wasted noise making time had passed.  Workers were upstairs carrying out their
business and nothing in their working life is different.  I was very upset, and spoke very
bluntly to try to bring an end to the meeting.  I said to her, “Would you be willing to
break consensus on this issue?”  A consensus decision does not necessarily mean that
everyone in the group in gung-ho about the decision, it just means that everyone agrees
that it is the best course of action for the group to take given the make-up of the group
and the situation that they are in.  I was essentially asking her whether or not she thought
that her opinion was valuable enough to her that she would be willing to postpone a
decision until one that she can agree with can be made.  The implications of this would
mean that either we would keep arguing in the room or that we would come to another
decision, possibly giving up our noise-making ability voluntarily.  Both of these scenarios 
were unthinkable to me and so I saw no point in staying in that room, continuing an
aimless discussion.  Seemingly disheartened, she began to give other reasons for her to
let go of the discussion.  “There are people in here that have been working on this a lot
longer than I have and care about this issue more.  It is not fair of me to stop you guys
from doing what you want to do.”  To this comment we reassured her that her opinion is
just as valid and equal as anyone else’s and she should not suppress her ideas for this
reason, but only if she truly believes that the group is making a mistake that she is
unwilling to go along with.  She was not ‘unwilling’ to go along with making noise, she
just did not think it was the best idea.  Finally a decision was made to go out into the
lobby and cause a bit of a ruckus.
 Not too long after our pots were bangin’ and voices were shoutin’, more police
arrived on the scene.  All we were doing was making noise, but the police presence
increased.  We were definitely causing some disruption of their work.  A prospective
student and his mother approached the building.  Adam went out into the foyer to
welome them to Tufts.  A police officer followed Adam into the foyer and asked him, the
prospective student, and the mother to leave.  All but Adam emptied out into the quad. 
Another officer entered the foyer.  The officers threatened Adam with arrest, but Adam
refused to leave.  Catching notice of this i began to bang on the door to the foyer and
chant “Let him in!”  It did not take long for the bewildered officers to allow Adam back
into the building.
 Not too long before our meeting with the President, they send in LGBT director
Judith Brown and English professor, Jonathan Strong--both allies of ours.  They
presented us with the President’s proposal.  We basically said, we have nothing to say to
you, where is the President.  That is the message we asked them to deliver to Ballou.
 After lunch we had a meeting where we decided who would represent us at the
meeting with DiBiaggio.  After some discussion we agreed that there should be three
males and three females on the delegation.  Those members were picked and we set the
agenda for the meeting.  The meeting with the President was only 30-45 minutes long. 
DiBiaggio apologized on three separate occasions for not meeting with us the night
before.  He had arrived on campus at about 9PM, but had to be briefed on the events and
had to discuss the possibilities with his fellow administrators and some members of the
Board of Trustees.  The president gave us some ideas that he had for his letter and we
commented on them, tweaking the wording around so that we would be happy with it. 
He said that he would have to go back to his lawyers to make sure that the wording did
not carry too much legal baggage.  On the issue of publishing the letter in newspapers, he
would not budge.  He stopped at an email to the Tufts community, and published letters
in the Tufts Daily and Observer.
 We discussed whether or not we were going to concede some of our demands,
including the different media outlets that the President refuses to publish in.  I was
among the few that wanted to wait it out and see how much we could get.  “This is our
last action in this campaign.  Let’s make sure we do it right.”  Others disagreed.  One
person said, “We have to be careful that we are not sacrificing the war for this one
battle.”  It was a tense political, ideological, and emotional point of contention. 
Eventually we decided that if it had to come to that point—that if we wanted this to be
published in the media outlets we had outlined, then we had to spend at least another
night—that we would concede on that demand.  One TSAD member stressed that she
was angry at other members who were pushing for more things when all we were inside
for was a nondiscrimination policy that works.  She cited that for her mental health and
the mental health of others, that we should not stay inside any longer.  It was the most
emotional point in our unwelcome stay at Bendetson and arguably ranked at the lowest
level of morale in the whole ordeal.  Another group member had to leave following this
meeting.  We were a bit concerned about numbers inside the building, but it was not a
major issue that we had to deal with at the time.
 Bruce returned shortly with 20 copies of a printed letter signed by President
DiBiaggio.  We all read it with great anticipation… and there it was:

I further want to emphasize that the university’s existing nondiscrimination policy
encourages individuals to accept their identity on the basis of their gender, sexual
orientation, race, color, religion, disability, and ethnic origin, and supports
individuals in doing so, and I affirm that the nondiscrimination policy is
understood to include such self-acceptance of identity.

There was a long pause—a very long pause.  Bruce fielded some questions about the
letter.  I had to leave in the middle of the meeting for about 30 minutes while I was being
interviewed via cell phone by Gay BC radio.  They were very supportive of us and
attempted to sensationalize the issue.  I ended up playing a more moderate role and trying
to explain the opposing argument rather than bash it and pigeonholing the opposition—a
position I never before would have seen myself in.
 In the middle of the interview, Roger interrupted to ask me if I approved of the
letter.  I asked him what the general sentiment of the group was.  He said that everyone
else had approved it and they were checking with me to make sure that everyone was
indeed okay with it.  The letter was satisfactory; it had exactly what we wanted it to say
in there.  I approved it.  After the interview, I returned to a group that seemed to be eager
to get out of the building with the letter.  The media demands were dropped.  All we
wanted now was the letter.  Bruce tried his best to send the letter out that night.
 Bruce also promised us at that particular meeting, a printed version of
DiBiaggio’s statement in a brochure that is distributed yearly.  This is an institutionalized
way to incorporate the President’s historic words into administrative policy.  We took
these things that were given to us—the policy, the Tufts Daily and Observer ads, and the
brochure—and we ran.  There was a sense of relief and accomplishment in the room. 
But the night was not over yet.
 In order for us to leave the building, the administration would have to send out
DiBiaggio’s letter over email to the Tufts community that night.  When Bruce heard this
he immediately reached for a phone to contact the technology representatives who would
be able to do so.  While he was off making phone calls we were drafting a contract that
would ensure his commitment to us.  He had promised us a brochure and two ads and we
were going to make sure that we received them.  I got on the phone with Dowling Hall to
request a notary public in order to make it official and legally binding.  It was close to
5PM and workers were beginning to leave.  I requested that a notary come to Bendetson
Hall to notarize the document.  The phone attendant said that this was not possible.  By
this time Bruce had reentered the room.  I asked the phone attendant whether or not it
would help if Bruce shared my concerns and would like a notary to come to Bendetson. 
She said yes and I said, “Well Bruce would like you to send a notary up here right away.” 
The room burst into laughter as Bruce’s face turned red with embarrassment.  “You guys
are gonna get me in trouble” he noted jokingly.  In disbelief, the attendant asked me if
Dean of Students Bruce Reitman was really here.  I said yes and asked if she would like
to speak with him.  Bruce exchanged some heartfelt words with her and told her that he
would call her back.  Bruce pleaded with us, “The notary’s got her coat on, let her go
home.”  In one of the lightest moments throughout the sit-in we agreed.  He called her
back and told them to go home.  He looked over the contract and signed the agreement.
 Bruce told us that the email was being taken care of.  We opened up a laptop to
wait for the email to arrive in our inbox.  Simultaneously we told Bruce that there was
just one more thing that we needed.  With a nervous look on his face he replied “What’s
that?”  “Co-ed housing.”  Relieved, Bruce welcomed the joke with a smile as we all let
out the frustrations of the previous 30+ hours with a good laugh.  To this Bruce replied
“You just had it last night.”
 When the email arrived, we all were quite relieved.  We stood up and let our
emotions run freely.  We laughed, cried, hugged, screamed, and jumped up and down.  It
was truly a great feeling.  The police allowed a few people inside to join our initial
celebration.  A Tufts Daily photographer was on the scene and took a picture perfect
photo of Julie Catalano hugging Vanessa Dillon which appeared on the front page of the
Daily the next morning.
 At 7PM that evening we marched out of Bendetson to a welcoming crowd with
our reaffirmed policy in our hands.  We shouted, “We got our policy, you got
Bendetson!” as we placed our belongings to the left of the entrance and realigned
ourselves behind the press table.  Courtney read aloud our statement and DiBiaggio’s
letter—both welcomed by great emotion and cheers.  Jonathan Strong made a few
statements following her, stating that this interpretation will cause a ripple effect and
shape the way other nondiscrimination policies at other universities will be interpreted.
 When all was said and done we celebrated with a dinner at the Near East Café. 
We caught up on sleep and threw a crazy party the following night.  It was a momentous
occasion—not only for the victim of the discrimination, not only for her queer friends at
Tufts, and not just for the queer community of the United States.  This is a time for
everyone to celebrate the reaffirmation of their civil right to accept their own identity.