College President Phil Hanlon arrived at his office at 1 p.m. and encouraged protesters to take a “more constructive approach.”
“Demands, threats, disrupting the work of others — that’s not the way to do it,” he said.
About 21 students were in Hanlon's office for his statement. After delivering the statement, he left the room.
Jillian Mayer ’14, who is in Hanlon’s office, said the protesters have been working in committees and working groups over their years at the College. These methods, she said in an interview, are not enough to “tip the needle.” Mayer said about six faculty members have stopped by the office to show support.
The students remaining in Hanlon's office are expressing their dissatisfaction with the administration's March 6 reaction to the "Freedom Budget." Six students spent the night.
Additional students remained in Parkhurst Hall outside of Hanlon's office, the door to which is being guarded by Safety and Security officers. At around 8 a.m., approximately five faculty members stopped by Hanlon’s office to show support for the student demonstrators.Safety and Security Officers stood outside Hanlon's office, and a student at the scene reported earlier this morning that they were asked to leave "regularly."
Hanlon said in an email to campus later that afternoon that he empathizes with the students but “meaningful change is hard work.”
“Progress cannot be achieved through threats and demands,” Hanlon said in the email. “Disrupting the work of others is counter-productive.”
The College, he said, will undertake a campus-wide climate survey that was recommended by the Committee on Student Safety and Accountability. Hanlon cited Moving Dartmouth Forward, Improve Dartmouth and his office hours as ways to “foster dialogue and advocate change.”
A protest on the Parkhust lawn is being planned for 3 p.m.
As of last night, seven faculty members had signed a statement expressing solidarity with the protesters.
"We can do what is expected — issue the typical condemnations and criticize the students' actions as 'unwise and untimely,' just as 'respectable' figures condemned [Martin Luther] King's principled and disruptive stance in Birmingham in 1963," the statement read. "Or we can do something entirely uncharacteristic of an elite, cloistered institution such as ours — we can engage in self-reflection while moving to implement the students' well-considered demands, seeking to understand how and why a wide array of students continue to experience the College's typical functioning as a kind of methodical assault on their dignity."
A group of about 35 students entered Hanlon's office during his open office hours on Tuesday, demanding a point-by-point response to each of the student-authored document's 70-plus demands for change regarding issues of diversity and inclusivity. Several camped out overnight in Hanlon's office, which Hanlon left at about 5:15 p.m.
This article will be updated as more information becomes available.
