When we entered the building I was very nervous—we were all very nervous.  No
one was really sure what to expect, if we would be a success, and what people would
think—this was everyone’s first building occupancy.  After we had made the first bound
and established that we were going to stay in the building indefinitely, we then had to
worry about our perception.  Would people listen to our action?  Would we be attacked
for our radical activities?  No one was sure what would happen; we just hoped for the
best.
 Thanks to our media team, we came very close to receiving the best.  Hours after
we had entered the building media began to arrive.  Our morale shot up.  As reporter after
reporter began to show up, we kept on getting more and more excited.  The media team
had done a successful job of recruiting various local and national media—including The
Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The Boston Phoenix, and The Chronicle for Higher
Education.  The more reporters and photographers that entered the building, the louder
we became; we knew the media was responding to our press packet.  People kept on
being dragged to the side, where it was a bit less noisy, to be interviewed.  Pictures kept
snapping.  Then the media started to dwindle; the administration had decided to keep
reporters and photographers out of the building.  Initially, this action caused our
excitement and morale to die down; then we realized that the administration was doing
this for fear of bad press.  The administration claimed that letting reporters into the
building during the sit-in would set a precedent that would mean that reporters could
enter any Tufts’s building in the name of reporting.  This argument seems very weak—it
seemed very much like an excuse. Various television stations showed up to report the
occupancy, as well.  The administration allowed protesters to exit the building and
re-enter, but they still would not allow any media into the building. 
 Shortly after we awoke the next morning, we could see the fruits our actions in
the daily papers that covered the sit-in—especially The Boston Globe and The Boston
Herald.  The articles in the papers where very positive and definitely supported us, rather
than attack us.  It was a great morale boost to see the papers supporting our cause—it
also validated our cause and our actions taken thus far.  The media definitely helped us
stay positive about the sit-in, and without the media, we probably would have become
much more disillusioned with our actions.
 The media table also did a wonderful job of showing student support for us.  The
media table had made a couple hundred laminated, construction-paper hearts, which
people were to write a message on and hang up.  As the sit-in progressed, the number of
hearts on the academic quad kept on increasing; we knew there were students out there
who supported our actions.  The construction paper hearts did an excellent job of
communicating student support to us by making student support tangible.  Negative
responses from students was minimal, but did occur.  One reactionary student felt the
need to begin to rip down hearts and our banner, due to his anger with the sit-in. 
Although it was demoralizing to see a student who did not agree with us, the media team
did an excellent job of making it look like that all of the students who walked by 
Bendetson supported us.  The student support that we saw definitely validated our action
to us.  At night, a vigil was held, at which even more student support could be seen.  The
Cultural Coordinating Committee, a coalition of all culture groups on campus, held their
meeting outside of Bendetson—they were in solidarity with our action.  Seeing the
cultural community at Tufts in support of us also played a crucial role in keeping our
morale high and validating our actions. 
 After our demands had been met, and we had exited the building, we realized that
outside and media support was not as good as it had seemed from the inside.  There were
definitely a number of students at this school who did not support our action.  Brian’s
Rumors Daily (www.rumorsdaily.com), a website which allows discussion through
anonymous posts, was full of comments attacking our actions and goals.  The media
lacked follow-up stories and did a bad job of reporting the fact that our demands had
been met.  However, while we were in the building media and student perception was
portrayed as very supportive, and this support helped give us the confidence necessary to
make the action successful.