Eleven days after eight Dartmouth students initiated a hunger strike, the two remaining student hunger strikers have agreed to end their strike after reaching an agreement with the College, according to a March 1 email sent by Dean of the College Scott Brown.
Six of the initial eight hunger strikers broke their strike on Feb. 26 but continued to support the two remaining hunger strikers — Roan V. Wade ’25 and Paul Yang ’23 — according to previous reporting by The Dartmouth.
Brown’s email referenced several demands included in a letter sent to the administration when eight Dartmouth students initiated their hunger strike.
Brown wrote that “Islamophobia — as well as antisemitism and any form of hate — has no place on our campus.” Brown also acknowledged that Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students are “valued members of our community,” noting that incidents such as the shooting of three Palestinian students in Burlington, Vt., have “added to the pain and anxiety that was already being felt by these students because of the war in Gaza.” According to the hunger strikers’ letter, at the time of its release, the College had “not released a single statement acknowledging the existence of a Palestinian student community on campus.”
The email also stated that the College has recognized that Wade and Kevin Engel ’27, the two student protestors arrested outside Parkhurst Hall in October, were “consistently nonviolent activists” following discussions with them. Brown acknowledged that some students felt Wade and Engel had been “unfairly characterized” by the administration.
According to previous reporting by The Dartmouth, Wade and Engel have been critical of President Sian Beilock for describing their actions as “violent.”
Brown wrote that Josh Keniston, chair of the Advisor Committee on Investor Responsibility for the Dartmouth Board of Trustees, will “meet termly over the course of the year with the Dartmouth New Deal Coalition” in order to discuss the process for submitting a proposal for divestment. The first demand of the Dartmouth New Deal is for the College to divest its endowment from any organization that is “complicit in [Israeli] apartheid and its apparatuses,” according to the Sunrise Dartmouth website.
The Dartmouth New Deal coalition held a rally in front of Parkhurst today at 1 p.m., according to their Instagram.
