This morning, College President Sian Leah Beilock wrote an email to campus addressing last night’s encampments. Following nearly six hours of protest, 90 people — including Dartmouth students, a Dartmouth history professor, non-Dartmouth students and two reporters for The Dartmouth covering the event — were arrested, according to past reporting by the Dartmouth. According to a media release statement by the Hanover Police Department chief of police Charles B. Dennis, those who were arrested were charged with “multiple offenses including criminal trespass and resisting arrest.”
Beilock wrote that those arrested were “removed from the Green by police after declining several opportunities to stage their protest in a manner consistent with Dartmouth’s policies.” Those policies “prohibit encampments or the occupation of buildings that interfere with the academic mission or increase safety risks to members of our community,” Beilock explained, adding that the protesters had “multiple opportunities to avoid arrest.”
“Part of choosing to engage in that way is not just acknowledging — but accepting — that actions have consequences,” she wrote.
Dennis added in the media release that the protest required a “multi-agency response” that included the Central New Hampshire Special Operations Unit to “ensure community safety.”
Beilock wrote that consequences have arisen when similar policies “have been ignored on other campuses” — including a switch to remote instruction and cancellation of commencement. In late April, Columbia University cancelled in-person classes following mass arrests of pro-Palestinian students and the University of Southern California canceled its main commencement ceremony for this year after the arrest of 93 activists, according to past reporting by The Dartmouth.
In an email to students signed by all six house professors, Allen House professor Janice McCabe wrote that they “do not believe this was a reasonable response to a peaceful protest that took up a small part of the Green.” She added that “many of the faculty oppose” the administration’s response and are “in discussion about how best to support the community.”
Beilock also criticized protesters’ demands for the College to “divest from Israeli apartheid,” writing that “the endowment is not a political tool.” Protesters “demanded” the Board of Trustees vote on divestment “despite the fact that the Board has a clearly articulated process for considering such decisions,” Beilock wrote.
“Using [Dartmouth’s endowment] to take sides on such a contested issue is an extraordinarily dangerous precedent to set,” Beilock wrote. “It runs the risk of silencing academic debate, which is inconsistent with our mission.”
