Courtesy of The Dartmouth Review.
This post recounts the events which transpired on the Hanover Green on the evening of Wednesday, May 1. It represents a capsule-form aggregation of the salient features of those events, especially if unreported elsewhere. The Review intends to publish in short order a comprehensive version of events as details become clearer and once the College responds to our requests for comment and clarification. The end of this post discusses campus emails and reactions from Thursday, May 2.
“Warning: You are in violation of Dartmouth College Policy. Please cease the disruption immediately and comply with college policy,” read the yellow notices distributed by administrators yesterday evening to those circled around the encampment established on the Green.
In a cult-like ceremony replete with songs, chanting, and refreshments, pro-Palestinian protesters made their presence known. As the evening progressed, and the sun began to set over the many members of Sunrise Dartmouth, students, faculty, and community members occupied the Green and were ultimately arrested by police. With this clash, Dartmouth joins the long list of institutions characterized by vehement, internal strife initiated by pro-Palestinian protesters. Quiet for months, campus is now aflame—thankfully not (yet) in the literal sense—with bickering and performative activism. On Wednesday night, enraged protesters called for “retaliation” against a supposedly tyrannical administration with chants of “Welcome to the brave space,” mocking the slogan which President Beilock introduced in opposition to the stereotypical “safe space” mantra.
Whispers of organized action grew louder over the course of the last week, building to a breaking point as graduate students (seeking higher pay and more comfortable accommodations) and undergraduates (professing a concern for the Palestinian people) increasingly harmonized in their professed hatred of the administration. The Beilock administration reiterated its stance in emails on Wednesday: it would not tolerate the occupation of Dartmouth property or other violations of College policy. In spite of this simply articulated prohibition, Dartmouth’s growing sect of radicals set out to challenge the administration, resolving to occupy the Green and demand that the College sever ties with Israel.
Several on-campus sources have informed The Review that pro-Palestinian groups, including Sunrise Dartmouth and the Dartmouth Palestinian Solidarity Coalition, circulated a sign-up sheet on which students could volunteer to be arrested (as the administration had indicated would happen) by occupying encampments on the Green. If true, such a sheet indicates a clear understanding of the consequences of occupation of College property and a willingness, even eagerness, to accept them.
The graduate student union announced on April 29 that it would hold a walkout on Wednesday, May 1. The various pro-Palestinian groups on campus followed suit and declared that, later on the 1st, they too would protest. The Palestinian elements timed their protest for 6:30, so that it would begin after most classes had ended; and as the appointed hour approached, masses gathered to begin their demonstration.
A core band of activists began constructing tents on the Green, replicating last fall’s tents outside of Parkhurst but on a larger scale and with significant raucousness. As the evening progressed, new protesters joined the central encampment, and a larger crowd of onlookers took shape on the outside of the field.
The activists began to belt out standard lines: the anti-Semitic “From the river to the sea” and the call to violence “Intifada Revolution.”
Campus security and local police began to cordon off surrounding streets. By 8:00, the state police had arrived, supported by a contingent of police officers in riot gear. They stood across from the encampment on the Green and began ordering the protesters to disperse upon penalty of arrest. The protesters refused.
The state police moved towards the crowd. Police vans as well as Outdoor Programs Office vans, repurposed to transport perpetrators, were stationed on the Green.
As events unfolded, the police began to arrest protesters, undeterred by shrill cries from the expanding circle of protesters, interlocking arms but doing nothing to stop New Hampshire’s finest. One by one, members of the protest were taken into police custody and transported to holding cells in Hanover and Lebanon.
90 people in and among the protest—students, faculty, and community members alike—were arrested on charges including criminal trespass and resisting arrest.
A larger group of protesters remained off to the side, away from the tents. At one point, they began to block Main Street and College Street, seemingly in an attempt to prohibit law enforcement from moving beyond the Green.
Roan V. Wade, arrested for her encampment at Parkhurst last fall, was present at the protest but was not arrested. Sources have noted that she was apparently providing updates to The Dartmouth as the night wore on, insofar as she is cited on their “live-update” page. Several sources also suggest that earlier in the evening, upon administrators’ dispersal of yellow notices to the protesters, Wade was the protester who urged fellow travelers on the Green to refuse to vacate and dismissed the prospect they would be arrested.
The Review has independently confirmed that at least two Dartmouth professors were among the 90 arrested. Professor Annelise Orleck of the History department says that she had attempted to prevent police officers from arresting student protesters. Officers dragged her away, an incident which has elicited accusations of excessive force from some on campus. Professor Christopher MacEvitt of the Religion department was also arrested.
By midnight, the police had finished arresting the core group, and they began pushing the larger peripheral group away from the Green.
Few arrested protesters spent more than a handful of hours in detention, with most having compatriots ready to bail them out that very night.
The Green, upon its abandonment by protesters, onlookers, and most of the police, took on an eerie quality. Floodlights shone down across the expanse, revealing nothing but remnants of grass, freshly seeded but destroyed by vehicles enforcing arrests, and illuminating passersby as they trod off to another, hopefully less-riotous destination.
In the midst of the protests-cum-riots, several functions of campus could not go unfulfilled. Notably, the Dartmouth Coach dropped off travelers outside of the Hanover Inn, stopping in the middle of Wheelock Street to unload its passengers.
Posts on campus commentary app Fizz ranged from humorous to serious. Our preferred entry was “Now is the perfect time to use your fake ID at Stinson’s, what’s he going to do, call the police?”, which gained substantial traction.
In the wake of the evening’s events, a barrage of emails blazed across campus servers early on Thursday. First came an email from Dartmouth Student Government discussing their commitment to “self-education” and detailing their disapproval of the arrests, particularly the ban of the arrested students and faculty from campus spaces.
The DSG faulted the administration for failing to engage in dialogue with protesters before Wednesday. And, in what was an all-too typical refrain for the DSG—reflecting an agreement with the protesters’ cause and a deep-seated hostility to the enforcement of longstanding College rules—they expressed their indignation that a “potential compromise” had not been reached.
Next came a highly anticipated message from President Beilock. She specified that, despite warnings of arrest, protesters physically prevented the removal of the encampment. She rightfully described the hate-filled threat which encampments (as has been seen throughout the country) can pose to Jewish students.
She explained further that calls for divestment serve to stifle academic debate in the name of weaponizing an otherwise apolitical fund: “Dartmouth’s endowment is not a political tool, and using it to take sides on such a contested issue is an extraordinarily dangerous precedent to set.”
Beilock emphasized her support for free speech throughout the message but noted that Wednesday’s disruption was more closely aligned with hateful intimidation than lawful protest. She warned against escalation and declared in effect that Dartmouth will not go the way of Columbia or UCLA.
With our president unwilling to bend to the far left, it remains to be seen whether the campus will stabilize or descend into greater chaos.
House professors—one of whom, MacEvitt, had been arrested—then dispatched their own email. This communication was outspoken in its dissent. The house professors outlined their disapproval of the arrests and the large police presence, and they vaguely referenced their strategy to take further action as representatives of both the student body and faculty. “This is unprecedented, and we do not believe this was a reasonable response,” they said. “Please take care of yourselves and each other.”
Throughout the rest of the day, innumerable emails—some from clubs, others from College staff party to variations on the campus Listserv—trickled into assorted undergraduates’ inboxes, expressing sympathy with students as they sought to “process” the events that unfolded the night before. We found these groveling, immature, and stunningly oblivious to the anti-Semitism and threat of violence which Wednesday evening’s events presented.
Here are some of the choice remarks we stumbled across:
From a club: “Please feel no pressure to attend this event if you do not have the capacity right now.”
From a professor: “I join you all in trying to process the events of last night, how they unfolded, witnessing the presence of riot police on our campus and comprehending its implications for our faculty, staff and students.”
From a professor: “We will … provide make-your-own nachos… [T]onight will focus on providing a space for us all to come together and be present as we process this together.”
The choicest remarks undoubtedly related to the Dartmouth Outing Club, with exchanges sent far and wide among the undergraduate body. The DOC should probably play things closer to the chest:
From the Director of the Outdoor Programming Office: “I can confirm that three of our OPO vans were used last night to transport protestors off the Green. I know from the Slack and conversations with some of you this morning that to see our vans involved caused hurt and confusion. [But] they are indeed College vehicles. [T]he OPO would like to invite you to the Robo lobby at 3pm today for some sustenance and reflective space.”
From a ’17 who managed to sneak his email into getting approved by the Listserv people: “Is this reporting [link to The Dartmouth] true? Were DOC-marked vans used by New Hampshire state and Hanover police during the arrest/detention of students?”
In response, from a DOC chair: “The vans that OPO and the DOC use to run our trips are not owned by the outing club, but instead are owned by the College. [T]he College is able to use the vans whenever and for whatever purpose they see fit.”
Ours was a cookie-cutter demonstration to those which have unfolded at universities across the country. We refer you to this WSJ piece. Writes Daniel Henninger: “It’s the most basic flip-the-script tactic: The perpetrators of mayhem transform themselves into camera-ready victims of “state violence.” He adds: “[The words protesters use] sound rote, almost scripted. What seems to be going on here is a conscious strategy to establish an equivalence of sincerity” to Jewish students who resist anti-Semitism.
Here at Dartmouth, will the arrests, and the resulting buzz on campus, necessarily energize more protests and escalate the situation? Or can the situation be de-escalated via administrative efforts toward “dialogue across differences”? The answer remains to be seen.
One thing is clear: Dartmouth has now been added, however belatedly, to the list of campuses where the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has created deep divisions and disruptions amidst a charged political environment. Navigating this scenario while upholding institutional values related to free speech, open debate, and campus safety will undoubtedly present a Sisyphean struggle to Dartmouth’s leadership in the days ahead.
Stay tuned for further coverage, and opinion, from The Review.
Good stuff.
💚
“From a professor: ‘We will … provide make-your-own nachos… [T]onight will focus on providing a space for us all to come together and be present as we process this together.'”
LOL. Bring blankies, crayons, apple juice boxes and vegan cookies.