As Connecticut College slid into full crisis Monday, with many classes shut down, the administration building occupied by students and sign-waving protestors with bullhorns picketing the main gate on Route 32, I found President Katherine Bergeron hunkered down inside her official residence.

With her office shut by the protests, I thought I might find Bergeron at home, although when I first strolled across campus to the president’s house it was so quiet, with no cars in the driveway and all the blinds drawn on the front windows, I thought sure no one was there.

Being an alumnus, I thought it was safe to stroll down the front walk and ring the bell. I was ready to give up after the third ring, but Bergeron then cracked open the door, said she was in a meeting and didn’t have time to talk.

She said to email her when I asked if we could arrange an interview for later. The door closed and I never heard from her again.

It’s not a good look for a college president accused of bullying and ignoring college diversity issues to refuse to appear in public and address the growing crisis, as both students and faculty demand a change in leadership.

Indeed, I can only hope the meeting she told me she was returning to was some kind of settlement talks about her severance.

It’s seems clear now the president doesn’t have the wisdom to see on her own when it’s time to go. You sure don’t need a Connecticut College degree to see she will not be able to continue to lead that institution.

I now blame the trustees for letting this drag on. As as alumnus, I am fed up. And I suspect there are many tuition-check-writing parents who are too.

“This isn’t over,” one of the dozens of student protest signs declared outside the administration building Monday. Students have set up a food supply chain to allow the students hunkered down inside the administration building to stay put for the rest of the week.

Meanwhile, the school has hired, of all things, outside consultants to study the problem, but then, exacerbating the complaints about the lack of transparency in the way the school is run, no one will identify what firm was hired or how much they are being paid.

Someone needs to tell the trustees that there is a five-alarm fire on campus and if they don’t put it out very soon the damage is going to be severe and long lasting.

I can promise them all those endless stories in all different kinds of forums are about to begin unspooling, exploring in more detail the complaints faculty, staff and students all have about the way Bergeron has managed the school.

Demonstrating students I chatted with Monday, when they weren’t waving signs at passing cars or writing criticisms of Bergeron in chalk on the sidewalks, said the fundraiser she planned at a private club with a history of antisemitism and racism was the last straw from an administration they see as haughty and blind to social justice.

There have been letters complaining about the president’s management style not just from faculty and students but a number of college organizations representing diversity issues.

I am impressed with the thorough coverage from the College Voice, the student newspaper which doesn’t seem prepared to let any aspect of the crisis go unreported.

I especially enjoyed a piece by the Voice outlining the biographies of the dozens of illustrious college trustees, many captains of industry, partners in leading law firms, even a billionaire owner of a national sports franchise.

What’s wrong with them all, and why aren’t they manning the firehoses, as President Bergeron hunkers down and pulls down more blinds at home.

This is the opinion of David Collins

d.collins@theday.com