Parikh said that protest organizers received a call from Sherwood at 2:15 p.m. on Thursday, 15 minutes before the protest was scheduled to begin. Sherwood said that as soon as he was made aware of the media advisory, he called Salter on his cell phone. "When we discovered that they had invited the media, we came to the conclusion that this was beyond what we had approved as a demonstration," said Sherwood.
At last year's Career Fair, 12 students staged a protest of Raytheon's table, kneeling in prayer and holding placards displaying Jesuit teachings. No application was processed to approve the protest, and it was almost immediately broken up by the Boston College Police Department and officials from ODSD. Two of the protesters, former student Nick Fuller-Googins and Joe Previtera, BC '05, received disciplinary action from the University.
"After the protest last year we decided to ask for the permit," said Salter. "We were happy to dialogue with the administration." Parikh said that she informed Sherwood during the first week of the semester that a Raytheon protest was in the works. "We felt we were being gracious to let them know what to prepare for ahead of time," she said.
Negotiations between the GJP, Sherwood, BCPD Chief Robert Morse, and Teresa Harrigan, director of the Career Center, took place throughout the month. One final meeting took place last Tuesday, and Salter said that the discussion focused mainly on space and logistics.
Sherwood said that he felt that the protest's organizers did not negotiate in good faith. "This is a matter of trust and honesty and faith," he said. "I told them from the very beginning that we were reluctant to let them inside the building at all. My feeling was that they weren't being straight and truthful with us, so there was no reason for us to let them inside the building."
Sherwood said that some of the same students he dealt with regarding this protest were involved with last year's Rally for Equality, which was also initially cancelled.
Spring Break
