This article is featured in the 2024 Homecoming Special Issue.
It has been just over a year since College President Sian Leah Beilock’s inauguration at Dartmouth. Her time on campus has seen a fair bit of criticism, along with certain praises. I personally have been very outspoken against Beilock’s failure to protect free speech on campus. I did, and still do, vehemently oppose the arrests of student activists.
My critique, however, is perhaps best understood with context. Beilock is not an alumna of Dartmouth, which, in itself, brings both opportunities and challenges. I firmly believe that fresh perspectives are crucial to a vibrant institution. Yet, I also feel that Dartmouth’s unique identity and values are best understood by someone who has experienced them firsthand.
What Dartmouth offers is indescribably unique — to the point that classes are taught to help understand the essence of this community. One class, REL 7.08, “Is Dartmouth a Religion?,” even compares the College to faith. The remote location, rich traditions and community values are aspects of the College that I didn’t begin to appreciate until I spent a couple of years as a student here.
Regrettably, I’ve concluded that only an alum has the understanding needed to truly grasp Dartmouth’s inner workings — a fact that Beilock’s approach to leadership has underscored. The values and traditions of Dartmouth are often centered around community, yet I am unsure that Beilock truly understands the essence of the traditions that exist here. Dartmouth is a shared experience, one that can honestly be strange at times. From First-Year Trips to walking around the Homecoming bonfire, Dartmouth students are quickly introduced to a singular experience that is labeled as “remarkable” by Admissions. Dartmouth’s advertising is full of this rhetoric, using language to suggest the College may only be truly understood by attending — it describes, for example, Dartmouth as having “a profound sense of place.” If this is truly the case — which I would proclaim it is — it’s difficult to see how a non-alum president can address potential shortcomings while maintaining that which creates the College’s “sense of place.” I applaud Beilock’s commitment to being present during Dartmouth’s significant traditions, but the use of curated discussions and photo ops around managed lunches often feels more performative than authentic, reinforcing a sense of superficial engagement.
A significant aspect of the current administration that has underpinned Beilock’s disconnect with students and the community is her approach to free speech. Beilock’s promotion of “brave spaces” and emphasis that “speaking up on campus doesn’t mean shouting each other down” have paradoxically only intensified divisions. I argue that — in a community as tight-knit as Dartmouth — students often naturally engage in non-confrontational styles of debate. Yet, the ‘culture war’ Beilock described in her Sept. 14 article published in The Atlantic only fuels a sense of conflict that feels imposed. It comes off as synthetic, overshadowing the authentic dialogue that has long been a part of Dartmouth’s community.
The arrest of 89 individuals on the Green on May 1, followed by Beilock’s response — standing by her decision to ask the Hanover Police Department for help in taking down the protest encampment — only underscored the disconnect between College leadership and the student body. Regardless of one’s stance on the issues at hand, the Green holds a special significance for all of us — a place where we gather, celebrate, eat, play games and spend significant discretionary time. On May 2, the Green felt changed — it was uncanny to walk across a place some of my peers weren’t allowed to even step foot on, barred as a result of their bail conditions. Beilock’s response to protest — both calling Hanover Police to assist and refusing to call for all the charges to be dropped — has not only been unprecedented; it has also sowed deep divisions on campus. Beilock has even used the protests on campus as an opportunity to speak to external media about what she sees as successes. It feels as if she has denigrated the Green instead of taking accountability and focusing on her students. I firmly believe that an alum of the College, with the same connection to the Green as the students currently here, would never react to the protest in the same way. As Dartmouth history professor Annelise Orleck pointed out in a post on X after her May 1 arrest: “Hanlon and I disagreed, but he never authorized the arrests of students” after they protested by occupying his office in April of 2014.
The overwhelming majority of College Presidents have been alumni. Historically, those who have been under the most scrutiny have not attended Dartmouth. Jim Yong Kim, who stepped down from his role in 2012, faced significant criticism because he was perceived as lacking undergraduate focus — which I would argue is in part due to his non-alumnus status. Though James Freedman is very well respected — despite not being an alumnus — he still received alumni criticism for “the Harvardization of Dartmouth.” I share similar concerns about Beilock’s leadership, and reading her recent article in The Atlantic only reinforced them. She writes about “saving the idea of the university,” but rather than offering a courageous or original perspective, she seems more intent on justifying her approach to student interactions through a veneer of intellectual discourse. She argues that it’s against educational values to “censor any contrary opinion.” This is easy to agree with — yet she is also the person who justified requesting police assistance on May 1. In her article, she positions herself as standing apart from popular opinion while simultaneously pandering to it, using students as political props — a troubling approach for any university president, let alone at Dartmouth.
Dartmouth’s unique culture and community values are likely best understood and upheld by someone who has lived them. While Beilock’s leadership has introduced new perspectives, her actions around protest and student relations reveal a disconnect that, in my view, only an alum could bridge authentically.
Opinion articles represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
