Briefing information

This collection contains meeting notes from the April 29 Coalition and their arrangements for the May 12, 1982 North College Sit-in to reinstate Wesleyan University's aid-blind admissions policy. Since this occured before the invention of cell phones, there are many letters written by the 19 students who spent 150 hours locked in North College. The coalition had a team of runners that would deliver supplies and messages to those locked in. The sit-in was also during the same time as reading week and the annual Spring Fling concert.

The sit-in caused some unusual problems. For example, the university locked the students out of the bathroom facilities. If they were to leave to go to the bathroom they would be locked out. In response to this situation, students used a bag in a corner of one of the administrators' offices and periodically lowered the bag of refuse out the window. In response, the administration reported them to Student Judicial Board (SJB) and tried to shut the sit-in down. The SJB decided that the bathrooms should be unlocked, the students should be allowed support runners, and the students should move to more public offices.

The collection includes meeting notes of the April 29th Coalition and a series of press releases sent out about the status of the negotiations with President Colin Campbell. Separate from the movement, there is a letter of solidarity written to the students of Medgar Evers College. Even though their grievances with their administration were different (such as the lack of a black studies program even though the campus was 90 percent black, and the lack of day-care facilities at a school with 73 percent female enrollment, over half of them with children), they shared in their goal for equal access education and student power in decision making.