Accepted Students Held Hostage in Admissions Building in Attempt to Increase Yield Rate

Alex Gervais ’28

Worried About Political Parallels

The College has recently come under fire after holding a group of 30 accepted students hostage in the basement of the The Manuel and Maria Luisa Lopes Borges Admissions Center from Saturday, March 28 to Monday, April 6. Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Matthew Hyde reportedly locked the doors to the building and stationed student admissions representatives at entrances and exits in an effort to keep admitted students at Trinity, forever. 

This comes as Trinity’s yield rate, the percentage of students who choose to attend Trinity after being admitted, has been flatlining around 20% for the last few admissions cycles. Sources close to admissions suggest that Hyde’s actions were primarily an effort to lower this number at least into the teens to compete with other NESCACs (especially Wesleyan). 

The incident happened after Dean of Admissions Matthew Hyde began posting villaincore edits of himself on the Trinity admissions Instagram account in early March. Some in the community thought this was merely a ploy to attract new students to Trinity: “I mean I thought it was pretty funny at first,” said Has Tage ’26. “I really didn’t think things would end this way. We reviewed true threats in my first amendment law class and I really didn’t think it met the strict scrutiny set up by the Court. I guess those threats were true, huh, I’ll have to tell Professor Falk.” 

The eight day long incarceration of the potential Bantams overran the campus with student activist groups calling for the admitted students to be let out, while Chartwells workers were allowed entry and exit from the building to distribute meals. “Ew, I’m NOT eating that” allegedly said McKenzie White, an accepted student from an ‘upper middle class’ background who was taken hostage. “Is that pork loin? Gross.” 

The campus was divided over President Lugo’s handling of the hostage situation: “I mean will I venture to compare [President Lugo] to Jimmy Carter in 1979, no; but being unable to commandeer your own admissions center is a sad state of affairs, and he didn’t even have to deal with Southern Hawks in Congress either” said Ayma Nerd ’28. “Let’s not go throwing around words like Jimmy Carter here,” said Laniel Dugo ’29 . “I would say the President’s actions are more on par with Trump in the Middle East; tough, but fair.” The Tripod was unable to independently confirm the accuracy of Dugo’s identity, with some alleging he was just President Lugo sporting a blatantly fake mustache, round rimmed glasses and a trenchcoat. 
The hostages were let out after long rounds of negotiations between Lugo, Hartford PD, the FBI and Dean Hyde, the school allowing him to retain his position and “fudge the numbers a little bit” in order to actually lower the yield rate. However, Hyde will be facing some punishment, the school has named him faculty advisor for the Tripod until he “stops attempting to auramog students on the Long Walk.”