A year ago today, police arrested 89 individuals on the Green during a pro-Palestinian protest.
Among those arrested were students, faculty members, community members and two staff members of The Dartmouth. For many within the Dartmouth community, the date “May 1” would become synonymous with the bright headlights of a police vehicle illuminating chanting protesters hand-in-hand around an encampment on the Green, swarms of onlookers spilling onto North Main Street and police in riot gear plucking protesters out of the crowds.
May 1, 2024
The protest and subsequent arrests marked an explosion in tensions between the administration and protesters since pro-Palestinian protests began in October 2023. The May 1 protest began as a rally with speakers from various advocacy groups. About an hour in, protesters erected tents on the Green and a few protesters entered the tents, while others chanted and encircled the encampment. Officers from the Department of Safety and Security repeatedly asked for protesters to disperse.
Riot police equipped with batons and masks arrived on the scene approximately three hours after the protest originally began. After a ten minute warning period, the riot police declared that all remaining protesters were under arrest. Over the subsequent three hours, the riot police arrested 89 individuals and dismantled the encampment. Nearly an hour later, an armored vehicle was spotted on campus.
The campus reacts
In the days and weeks to follow the May 1 protest, the College and its broader community grappled with arrests. On May 2, College President Sian Leah Beilock sent a campus-wide email, writing that those arrested were “removed from the Green by police after declining several opportunities to stage their protest in a manner consistent with Dartmouth’s policies.” According to a police filing, those arrested were charged with numerous offenses, including criminal trespass and resisting arrest.
Also on May 2, faculty and staff held a walkout on the Green in protest of the arrests, and demanded a meeting with Beilock. Former State Department director Josh Paul canceled a planned event at the Dickey Center in light of the arrests, saying in an interview with The Dartmouth that he thought “it wouldn’t be appropriate to go forward with what would appear to be, first of all, an endorsement of Dartmouth’s approach on this.”
On May 8, prosecutors officially dropped charges against the two staff members of The Dartmouth arrested during the protest. Both had been wearing press credentials while reporting on the protest.
The Dartmouth’s opinion section was flooded with articles and letters to the editor from students, alumni, faculty and staff which applauded and condemned the administration’s decision to call the police. Among them was a letter to the editor in support of Beilock by anthropology professor Sergei Kan, which was signed by over 50 faculty members.
Simultaneously, faculty members of the history, Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies and Spanish and Portuguese departments released open letters criticizing the arrests, with the history department writing that it was “shocked that the administration responded to a peaceful protest not with dialogue and de-escalatory measures, but with police brutality and the mass arrests of Dartmouth students, faculty, and staff.” Faculty opinion of May 1 would remain extremely divided and on May 20, faculty voted to censure Beilock for her decision to call the police in a 183 to 163 vote.
On May 15, 51.86% of students voted no-confidence in Beilock’s leadership in a Dartmouth Student Government referendum. By the end of the month, more than 4,200 people — including Dartmouth alumni and parents – signed a letter in support of Beilock’s decision to call the police.
In June, prosecutors declined to press charges against 28 individuals arrested, including students and religion professor Christopher MacEvitt.
A campus changed
As the majority of students left campus for the summer, the dust began to settle. In the following months, Beilock’s administration has introduced several institutional changes, including adopting a policy of institutional restraint as well as a recent change to its freedom of expression and dissent policy.
Many believe that May 1 marked a shift in the campus protest climate. The Dartmouth spoke with individuals who were interviewed immediately after the arrests to understand their perspectives a year later.
Alex Rockmore ’27 drove around the May 1 protest waving an Israeli flag. In reflection of the protest and arrests, he said that it was a “turning point in the dialogue” and provoked more “conversation” about the right to protest.
Felipe Mendonca ’27, who was involved in the May 1 protest, concurred. But he found changes on campus to be more stark.
“What changed is the sense of fear,” Mendonca said. “I have a sense of fear, not only from the Trump administration, [from] which I feel like I can lose my visa, but also from the College. I think they won’t protect me.”
This trend is evident in a recent survey by The Dartmouth. 60.01% of respondents do not believe that Beilock has created a safe space for discourse on campus. Further, two-thirds of students reported feeling unprotected from external prosecution for expressing their opinions on campus.
Harper Richardson ’27 felt that the relationship between student protestors and the administration has worsened.
“I think students are much less trustworthy of the administration now, just because everyone’s eyes were opened to it en masse, that students will be arrested, and there won’t be any shame for that,” she said.
Richardson felt that a shift was part of a larger trend at the College.
“Dartmouth has been slowly changing its policy in regards to protests,” she said. “When there were the anti-Apartheid protests, students weren’t arrested on the same scale they were [on May 1]. They were allowed to meet with the president … Now it seems the administration is just wielding the hand of fascism with no remorse.”
Oren Poleshuck-Kinel ’26 felt that Beilock’s decision to call the police on May 1 had positive implications for Jewish students on campus.
“I have friends all across the country at other schools who don’t feel comfortable expressing their own Jewish identity,” he said. “Jewish life at Dartmouth is different … people feel safe being Jewish, and feel proud to be Jewish. In large part, I think that’s due to President Beilock’s leadership.”
When asked for comment, senior vice president for community and campus life Jennifer Rosales provided a list of policies and programs relating to free speech and protests that the College has recently instituted. These included the College’s institutional restraint policy, the Discourse at Dartmouth Fund and the College’s collaboration with the town of Hanover to streamline the process for obtaining permits for protests.
