April 29th Coalition records

In the spring of 1981, the University formed the Budget Advisory Committee (BAC) which was made up of 4 students, 4 faculty, and 3 administrators. The BAC studied alternative ways to modify the aid-blind policy. In January 1982, the committee recommended the termination of the aid-blind admissions policy. Aid-blind meant that the admissions decisions were made without regard to the students' ability to pay. Need-blind, Wesleyan University's policy as of 2008, is a system which means that once admitted, a student receives all the financial aid needed to attend Wesleyan. (The third option is budget blind which means that there is no limit to financial aid expenditures.) Wesleyan's former policy was a "pure" aid-blind policy because it was also need-blind and budget blind. In 1981, Wesleyan tuition was $11,450 annually.

Students immediately began to protest the change to aid-blind admissions, and the administration blamed the Reagan administration's higher education cuts. Six hundred Wesleyan students attended a rally in Washington D.C. and were recognized as the largest single group in attendance. On April 29, two hundred students rallied in front of the North College building to protest the aid-blind cuts. The April 29th Coalition, a new student group, presented President Colin Campbell with a petition signed by 1,284 students. They also collected signatures from professors, workers at Downey House (the campus center and dining hall at the time), and from Linus Pauling (two time Noble Laureate). Their demands entailed that Wesleyan return to an aid-blind system, that a student/faculty committee be formed whose primary focus was to study fiscally responsible ways of financing aid-blind admissions (with access to all information requested), that student trustees be granted full voting rights, and finally that President Campbell and the Board of Trustees voice the University's opposition to the federal higher education cuts. President Campbell responded that he would urge the reinstatement of the policy if and when it would be economically feasible. The university could not immediately reinstate the old policy because it "would pose a threat to the range and quality of the educational program."

The students responded by planning a 150 hour sit-in on the second floor of North College, one hour for each year that the university had existed. On May 12, nineteen students moved into North College. In addition to the sit-in there were 150 second "Die-ins" on the steps of North College. Students would play dead in order to "Resurrect aid-blind." It was very important to the students that the drama of the protests would not take attention away from their aid-blind message.

Although their primary demand for reestablishing the aid-blind system was not met by the end of the semester, President Campbell wrote a statement that the students' demands would be addressed at the next the Board of Trustees meeting and that reinstituting the former policy would be given the highest priority if and when circumstances permitted.

It seems that the University transitioned into a need-blind policy after this dispute, in which students would be accepted and would receive financial aid based on their need, but that their need was taken into consideration when accepted to the school. It is unclear when this policy was implemented and how long it lasted. In the 1991-92 school year, the university denied need-blind financial aid to students who were on the waiting list. Again students rallied and held (a shorter) sit-in at North College. Although the definitions of terminology varies, and different publications describe Wesleyan as either need-blind or aid-blind, the university still claims to have had a long history with giving aid-blind support to its students.