“We urge everyone to speak out and actively participate in our democracy. As Coretta Scott King said: ‘The struggle is a never-ending process. Freedom is never really won. You earn it and win it in every generation.’”
Three years ago, in an open letter to The New York Times, six university presidents invoked Coretta Scott King to criticize the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn “Roe v. Wade.” The then-president of Barnard College was an author and signatory.
What’s changed, College President Sian Leah Beilock?
In an email to campus on Wednesday evening, Beilock attempted to defend her position as the sole Ivy League president to abstain from signing a letter against the Trump administration’s encroachment of higher education. “As president, I have never signed open form letters because they are rarely effective tools to make change,” she wrote.
We, the Editorial Board, appreciate the delicate nature of the situation. In today’s political moment — where Harvard’s refusal to acquiesce was immediately met by funding freezes and threats against international students — the College’s strategy may be to present itself as friendly to the Trump administration to escape its ire. Perhaps administrators have made the calculation that flying under the radar is the best way to protect our funding, students and institution’s ability to educate.
But even if this is the approach that Beilock has chosen, she has failed to make our most vulnerable community members feel protected. Communication from the College has been lacking in frequency, honesty and substance. President Beilock, your support for our institutional restraint policy — which implores our institution to “reaffirm [its] core values” in the face of challenges that impede its core mission — is inconsistent with your handling of the pressing issues concerning our student body. Without communication that emphasizes the College’s commitment to students, our campus will continue to feel exposed.
This truth is borne out in the numbers. The Dartmouth found in a survey that 60.01% of students do not feel the Beilock administration has created a safe space for dialogue. Two-thirds of students do not feel protected by the College from external prosecution for expressing their opinions. This is a disappointing and sadly unsurprising fact, nearly one year after the arrest of peaceful student protesters on May 1.
The quality of our liberal arts education hinges on the free speech of every student. We sacrifice our institution if we cower now. Intellectual inquiry is premised on freedom. Behind the smiles and conversations that characterize daily life at Dartmouth, students feel deep fear. That might be hard for administrators like President Beilock to see, but we as students all feel it.
This is not who we are as a campus. As we wrote in our Verbum Ultimum two weeks ago, Dartmouth is a school of engaged, varied citizens that stand up for what’s right. President Beilock, indignation over your silence spreads far beyond campus. The Dartmouth has continued to receive a mountain of letters from alumni expressing their confusion and rage about why you did not sign onto the open letter. Listen to the generations of graduates who continue to point out your mistakes, and correct them.
President Beilock, you must change your approach. You claim to believe in collective action. You certainly felt enough heat about your lack of action to warrant a campus-wide explanation. So sign the open letter with our peer institutions, or issue your own public statement clarifying that Dartmouth will stand up against Trump’s federal overreach. Joining “action-oriented” coalitions is a good first step, but this isn’t enough — disjointed actions without a strong message behind them cannot form a coherent, sustained response to the attack on higher education.
Perhaps the most glaring part of your letter was its first line: “It’s been a little over a month since I wrote to you at the start of spring term.” We needed you earlier.
