We read the piece in The Economist yesterday morning about Dartmouth’s “sensible policies” and “savvy politicking.” The article praises how College President Sian Leah Beilock has protected our campus from President Donald Trump’s attacks on top universities and fostered balanced dialogue. It’s ironic, of course, that The Economist’s story was published exactly a year after the College facilitated the arrest of 89 community members.
This image of Dartmouth in the media is not new. In February 2024, The Wall Street Journal published “How Dartmouth Keeps Its Cool,” which featured recycled buzzwords about “safe spaces” versus “brave spaces.” Last September, President Beilock wrote about the importance of ideological diversity in The Atlantic.
Beilock is saying all the right things to practically every major media outlet. In The Atlantic, she wrote, “Appeasement can feel safe and easy — if that means giving in to the demands either of student protesters or of vocal donors. But when the future and credibility of American higher education is at stake, university leaders have no choice but to be laser-focused on the academic mission of their institutions, even when doing so prompts discord and disagreement.”
These sentiments are familiar to most Dartmouth students. We can rattle off the talking points too. However, the College’s messaging is not representative of the way students on our campus feel.
The arrests of 89 Dartmouth community members on May 1, 2024, fundamentally damaged our campus’ relationship with freedom of expression. Regardless of one’s position on the Israel-Palestine conflict, last year’s May 1 protest was explicitly peaceful from the outset and only took up a small portion of the Green. We know because we were on the Green. We remember that you, President Beilock, were not.
We do not take issue with the legality of last year’s arrests, but we abhor the implications for dissent on campus. It is true that the Green abides by some of the rules of the Town of Hanover, and the Town Charter dictates that outdoor activities that “disrupt the normal flow of activities” are prohibited. However, if the College really wanted students to “feel totally fine expressing their views” — as Beilock said to The Economist — it should have pursued peaceful methods such as disciplinary action, not forcible arrest.
Instead, May 1, 2024, scared the community and conveyed that peaceful protest — a Constitutionally-protected form of free expression — is not unequivocally acceptable. We know this because we have done the reporting.
In a recent survey conducted by The Dartmouth, two-thirds of student respondents said they do not feel protected by the College from external prosecution when expressing their opinions. Over 60% of student respondents told us they do not feel administrators have created a safe space for dialogue on campus.
Just over 22% of student respondents told us they feel “very unsafe” while protesting on campus. 36.50% reported feeling somewhat unsafe. That’s damning. That’s not Dartmouth “keeping its cool.” That’s Dartmouth quieting students — intentionally or not.
In our coverage of the one year anniversary of May 1, interviews with arrestees and others reinforced this data. One student, Amy Conaway GR, said that this feeling was an outgrowth of last year’s crackdown on protesters.
“President Beilock’s administration has called the police on peaceful protestors, pressed charges against peaceful protestors and refuses to protect international students and workers,” Conaway wrote in an email statement. “These actions are attempts to silence dissent and free speech on campus.”
Abigail Burgess ’25 told our reporter that getting arrested made her “remove” herself from activism. She was afraid of violating her bail conditions.
“I couldn’t organize this whole past year,” she said. “That sucks, and it makes me feel helpless. But I had to, for my own safety.”
Religion professor Christopher MacEvitt, who was arrested a year ago, expressed a similar sentiment. He said last May made him realize that Dartmouth “isn’t the place I thought it was.”
“I had the mistaken idea that we were a community,” he told our reporter.
“Dartmouth Dialogues” is a brand. It rings hollow when one listens to our community. To publications like The Economist, maybe do a little more reporting before writing Dartmouth’s press releases for them.
Correction Appended (May 3, 10:33 a.m.): This article previously erroneously stated that the Town of Hanover owns the Green. The Green operates by some of the regulations of the Town. It has been corrected.
