Off-campus party sparks sit-in at lacrosse game

Fairfield students and staff members quietly demonstrated at the men’s lacrosse game on Tuesday, March 1 in response to the recent off-campus “ghetto” themed party.

The demonstration, which was organized by student organizations Umoja (Swahili for unity) and Black Latino Brown Experience, formerly the Black Hispanic Brown Experience, was attended by approximately thirty students.

Students held red and white signs which read “ghetto is not a style” and “we have not forgotten.”

They wished to express their discontent with the University’s response to the recent events.

“The reason why we chose specifically to sit at a lacrosse game,” commented Jasmine Raghunandan ‘17 who participated in the sit-in “is because the lacrosse team has been found responsible for at least hosting the party, and the fact that the institution has decided to allow this game to continue and not suspend the entire game is, to everyone who has been affected, or at least to everyone who is sitting here in protest, we find that to be disrespectful to how we have been offended.”

Raghunandan explained that the purpose of the demonstration was not to disrupt the game, but rather to have a presence and make it clear to attendees of the game that the party was not acceptable.

“The reason why we’re here,” she said, “is to establish a presence and to affirm to the University, to whomever is in attendance, to the greater community that’s also here that this happened on campus and it’s not going to go away overnight, it’s not going to go away after spring break.”

“We cannot stop the game,” Raghunandan continued. “Our intention isn’t to sit in the field and stop the game and be disruptive. Our intention is just to make our presence known and say that we are not okay with what happened. We will never be okay with what happened.”

“I’m here to stand up for what I know is right,” said Sean Tomlinson ‘19, who also attended the sit-in. “You can’t let things that are so inherently wrong just go … not untalked about, because it’s been talked about … but you can’t just let it go until someone changes it.”