Students Band Together to Form Trinity’s First Campus Town Hall

Lucy Sheldon ’27

News Editor

On Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, students and faculty convened in Seabury N217 for Trinity’s first Campus Town Hall. This event, sponsored by the International House (iHouse) and co-sponsored by Students Against Mass Incarceration (SAMI), provided an opportunity for students to share their perspectives and experiences on campus life. With Vice President for Student Success and Enrollment Management Joseph DiChristina in attendance, students had a direct line of access to administrators. Students, faculty, and staff were able to speak about pertinent concerns and ideas with the goal of inspiring material change on campus.

The International House Co-President and one of the organizers of the event, Francesco Castagna ’25, shared that the aim of the Campus Town Hall was “to create a space for all of the organizations [to] come together, not just staff and faculty, and raise their concerns and issues that they have seen here on campus. Ideas that they have, opinions or demands they wanted to voice out to different members on campus. Mostly, as we have seen here today, to the administrators, of course.” Castagna also shared his surprise that, to his knowledge, no other event like this is taking place on campus. There is no comparable forum to the Campus Town Hall for students to raise their concerns and, in real-time, hear how administrators intend to respond or are already responding. 

Some of the issues raised by students included the maintenance of The Mill, increasing funding for clubs like Model UN, a growing fear over the Trump administration, the excessive production of waste at Mather Dining Hall, and the absence of a Title IX coordinator. Concern over the Trump administration — his funding cuts, ICE raids, and executive orders — echoed throughout the crowd. Students inquired about what protections Trinity had in place against ICE officers raiding campus and terrorizing students. Dean DiChristina responded to the unease about ICE raids by informing the attendees that there is a link to a site, available to the entire student body, that delineates the rights and protections of undocumented/DACA students. He explained that should an ICE agent come to campus, Campus Safety is trained to respond and contact a senior member of the administration immediately.

Students also expressed unease over whether Trinity College intends to respond to and manage the Trump administration’s threats to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Trinity has an Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion composed of secondary offices like Multicultural Affairs, the Queer Resource Center, the Title IX office, and the Women and Gender Resource Center. Students fear staff may be laid off or not have access to these resources in the upcoming months. Dean DiChristina reassured students that the government grants the College receives go towards research, technology, and student financial aid; these grants will likely not be pulled if Trinity continues to fund and staff DEI offices. However,  Dean DiChristina affirmed that Trinity has an unwavering commitment to DEI regardless of the Trump Administration’s funding cuts and executive orders.

As students discussed the topic of a Title IX coordinator at Trinity, they revealed many have had to wait over three months to hear back about their cases. This inspired a conversation as to why this position of Title IX coordinator has had a high turnover rate in the last few years and if there was something the administration could do to remediate this recurring problem. To this, Crystal Nieves, the Director of LGBTQ+ Life/half-time coordinator of the Queer Resource Center, shared that the college is actively searching for a new Title IX coordinator, but in the meantime, students can report their questions and complaints regarding Title IX to the interim coordinator, Adrienne Martinez. 

Moreover, students raised concerns over the treatment of Mather workers, the rise of COVID-19 and flu cases on campus, how the buildings, pathways and facilities are not disability-accessible, and Trinity’s hiring freeze. Students explained that there are several understaffed offices on campus, and there seems to be no movement toward filling those positions. One student expressed frustration that in particular, Trinity’s Student Accessibility Resource Center (SARC) does not seem to be operating at full capacity because it is understaffed. Students demanded Trinity act with more transparency when dealing with these administrative issues. There was additionally a shared sentiment expressed among students that they feel deceived by the administration, as certain benefits and programs advertised to them when applying are seemingly unavailable or inaccessible.

After the Campus Town Hall concluded, a student in the audience shared a powerful quote from Ghassan Kanafani, paying homage to the event thrown together by the iHouse and SAMI and in honor of Valentine’s Day: “Everything in this world can be stolen, except one thing: this one thing is the love towards a solid commitment to a conviction or cause.”

As students and faculty headed out, Anna Grant-Bolton ’25, another organizer of this event, spoke with the Trinity Tripod. According to Anna, there was an open invite extended to any members of the campus community who had ideas, concerns, or thoughts they wanted to share with the greater community, so faculty, students and staff were all invited. She explained that students, faculty, and staff had an opportunity to sign up in advance to speak at the Town Hall; some even sent anonymous letters to be read. There was also an opportunity for anyone who didn’t sign up to stand up and share their thoughts at the end. 

She hopes this will become an annual event, carried out by the students and organizations that succeed her after she graduates. Anna expanded on the purpose of this event, stating, “There are so many siloed-off concerns, interests [and] ideas that different members of the community have. So, the hope was to elevate a lot of those otherwise isolated concerns and start, hopefully, a campus-wide dialogue about some of the issues that are happening on campus that other students, faculty or staff may not know about and to hopefully elevate these concerns and issues to the administration and Board of Trustees.”