“I am Fairfield University!”
“Damn the man!”
These are not phrases commonly heard around Fairfield University, especially on a Sunday evening in the Barone Campus Center. However they were heard loud and clear this past Sunday evening in the form of a guerilla theater protest in front of the FUSA office.
The protest, performed by Patrick McHugh ’06, Ryan Ferris ’05, Nicole Smith ’04 and Veronica Tarasco ’06, touched on such popular topics of student complaint as the increasing cost of tuition, poor quality of Fairfield’s food, and lack of financial aid. The guerilla theater protest was held as a project for the interdisciplinary art/history class Examining the 1960’s.
The four performers entered the lower level of the BCC from four different directions, screaming “I am Fairfield University!” while a crowd of approximately 30 students looked on, with more gathering on the upper level of the BCC.
Once gathered in front of the FUSA office, where FUSA members were inside having their weekly meeting, the theatrical protest began.
While FUSA members sat in their office paying little noticeable attention to the action outside, the guerilla theater participants addressed their various complaints.
Protestors advocated better food quality, reductions in the cost of education and more money devoted to financial aid and quality professors.
One protestor, dressed as the “Big Bad Stag” also appeared in a Three Pigs scenario about housing on campus.
Those living in forced triples in the quad, moldy apartments and water damaged townhouses were told by the Stag that instead of fixing the situation “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll raise your room and board!”
But why chose to hold a guerilla theater protest outside the FUSA office for a class project?
“There were a few problems about Fairfield that we felt needed to be addressed,” said McHugh. “We had to connect the project to the 1960s so we chose to base it on a guerilla theater protest, and we chose to attack FUSA because they most directly represent the students.”
Student reaction was one of surprise and interest.
“I was walking through the BCC and saw people gathering and went to see what was going on,” said Adam Klich ’06.
“I heard them talking about all this stuff about Fairfield, and I really agree with what they were doing,” Klich said.
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