On Oct. 27, the Dartmouth Student Government Senate met for its sixth weekly meeting of the fall term. Led by student body president Chukwuka Odigbo ’25, the Senate and present members of the student body debated how they should publicly respond to the recent arrests of two protesters at a campus event featuring Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa.
While all present senators agreed to issue a statement, senators debated over the message’s tone and content. Odigbo said the statement’s content could take several forms: information only, information and “concern about the repeating trend of arrests” or information, concern and “condemn[ation of] the arrest[s].”
An “overwhelming majority” of senators supported an informational statement, DSG project director and senator Sabik Jawad ’26 said in an interview after the meeting. Moreover, a “majority” subgroup “supported” a statement including “both information and also expressing concern over the recent trends of arrest,” Jawad added.
A proposed statement drafted by members of DSG in the days following the Oct. 27 meeting failed with a vote of three in favor, four against and four abstentions, according to Jawad.
Non-voting representative Daniel Pruder ’27 said the draft “leaned” toward stating that DSG does not support the “trend” in student arrests. He explained that there was “contention” about the statement’s contents because some senators said the protesters “chose what they did” and it is not DSG’s “job” to comment on the arrests.
Pruder said he believed DSG should be taking a “more aggressive approach” to “condemning” the arrests.
“I think every day that a statement doesn’t go out, it just makes DSG look weaker,” he added.
Former senator Alejandra Carrasco Alayo ’25 said at the Oct. 27 meeting that she believed the arrests of protesters for “shouting” their beliefs was “disturbing.”
“I personally feel like there is room not just for debriefs, … [but] to also [tell] admin that this is not the right way to do things,” Carrasco Alayo said.
During the meeting, Pruder added that he agreed “interrupting an event” did not merit “this level of punishment.”
“I think that DSG should … at least condemn this culture that has taken over where arrests have become very commonplace, because if we don’t say anything, then it’s just going to become the new normal,” he said.
However, South House Senator Ian Mckenna ’27 said he believed there was “no reason to condemn” the arrests.
“There were two protesters inappropriately interrupting an event that were asked to leave, and they didn’t,” he said. “That is why DSG shouldn’t condemn it.”
Jacob Markman ’27 said he believed it was not in the “purview” of DSG to address the arrests because it “wasn’t Dartmouth that arrested the students.” Markman was confirmed as a representative after the Oct. 27 public meeting in a vote of 8-0-7.
Senators also discussed bike-related issues on campus during the meeting. Senator Evan Gerson ’27 recommended drafting an open letter to the Dartmouth administration about a lack of bike lanes, which he called an “infrastructure emergency.”
In a closed session after the open meeting, Senator Heath Monsma ’25 was removed from office in a vote of 12-0-3, Odigbo wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth. An impeachment vote for another unnamed senator for lack of attendance was postponed. According to the DSG constitution, senators will be “automatically impeached” for three unexcused absences from meetings throughout a term.
Monsma did not respond to a request for comment.
DSG Senate meetings occur weekly on Sundays at 7 p.m. in Collis 101 and are open to all students.
Heath Monsma ’25 serves as podcast editor of The Dartmouth. He was not involved in the writing or production of this article.
Correction Appended (October 17, 8:16 p.m.): A previous version of this article did not specify that senators will be automatically impeached for “unexcused” absences, not all absences. The article has been corrected.
