At 12:30 p.m. on May 2, Dartmouth faculty and staff held a walkout on the Green in response to the arrests of 90 community members during the May 1 encampment protests. Approximately 100 professors, staff and students gathered to condemn last night’s mass arrests and the police response to the peaceful protesters.
At the gathering, faculty, staff and students addressed the crowd to speak about the arrests of community members. Some individuals held signs that read “no cops on campus.”
English professor Patricia Stuelke, who was present at the walk-out, said tenured faculty are eligible to sign a petition to request an emergency meeting of the General Faculty at 3:30 p.m. on May 6. The petition — which is addressed to College President Sian Leah Beilock and members of the Senior Administration — states that the goals of the meeting are to discuss the “use of excessive force” to shut down the protesters and challenge the terms used in Beilock’s campus-wide email sent on May 2. The petition also demands the lifting of “total or partial campus bans, unjust academic consequences and legal charges for any and all arrested students, faculty and staff” and that the College “revise its existing dissent policies” in regards to engaging with peaceful protesters.
According to the Charter of the General Faculty of Dartmouth College, a meeting can be called if petitioned by 75 or more members of the general faculty.
East European, Eurasian and Russian studies professor Ainsley Morse said she attended the demonstration in response to the “militarized and violent response to student protesters” at the encampment.
Morse said the faculty petition was “spontaneous” but “not difficult” to organize because many faculty members knew students personally affected by the protest. She also said many faculty members were “horrified” by the response to the protests and others were “disgusted” by President Beilock’s email to campus this morning.
“The President’s email this morning … blatantly misrepresented what happened last night, including not even using the word ‘arrest’ or ‘riot police,’” Morse said.
Women’s, gender and sexuality studies professor Eng-Beng Lim — who is currently conducting a fellowship away from Dartmouth — said he returned to participate in the faculty and staff walkout after he saw the police response to student protesters online.
“I rushed back in solidarity with faculty, students and staff after learning about the disproportionate [and] extreme force that was being unleashed on student protesters within hours of gathering,” Lim said. “This means there was no attempt at all in engaging with the students.”
In an email sent to students, Allen House professor Janice McCabe, East Wheelock House professor Christopher MacEvitt, North Park House professor Melanie Taylor, School House professor Abigail Neely, South House professor Sienna Craig and West House professor Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch wrote that they were “horrified” by the police response to the “peaceful protests.”
“We comforted many shocked and crying students, dozens of whom were arrested along with one of us,” the professors wrote. “This is unprecedented, and we do not believe this was a reasonable response to a peaceful protest that took up a small part of the Green.”
Women’s, gender, and sexuality studies chair Melissa Zeiger said history professor Annelise Orleck was “brutalized” during her arrest last night.
“[Orleck] asked the cops to loosen the [zip] ties [around her hands] because she has nerve damage in one hand,” Zeiger said. “The cops refused and mocked her.”
Geisel School of Medicine professor Donald Kollish said he was not surprised by the administration’s response because of the number of student protester arrests nationwide.
Dean of the Faculty Elizabeth Smith invited “all department, program and committee chairs” to a Zoom meeting at 3 p.m. today to “discuss last night’s events, answer questions and consider how we can support our community,” according to an email to faculty members obtained by The Dartmouth.
