As a freshman during spring term 1972, I attended my first protest against the Vietnam War in front of the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory near campus. Although a few other protesters had committed to performing acts of civil disobedience during the protest — namely, by blocking the driveway entrance to CRREL — I was only there to lend vocal and moral support. After the Hanover police had removed and arrested the half-dozen or so protesters who had physically blocked the entrance and refused to move, the protest looked like it would be very short-lived unless others threw themselves into the breach. So I was moved to do so and quickly found myself in the paddy wagon headed to Hanover’s jail.
After cooling my heels with the others in the holding cell for an hour or so, I was surprised and relieved to see the College’s dean, Carroll Brewster, arrive. Looking mildly put out, he quickly obtained the release of us students. What was surprising was that Dean Brewster was no flaming liberal and was an outspoken opponent of the coeducation that was to start with the next year’s entering class — yet here he was, getting us sprung.
I could not help but flash back to that moment with greater appreciation when I arrived on campus a year ago to attend the Dartmouth Asian Pacific American Alumni Association’s 25th anniversary conference, one day after College President Sian Leah Beilock had summoned the N.H. state troopers to clear and arrest peaceful demonstrators from the Green. It was a stunning inflection point for me: 50 years earlier, the College had obtained the release of peaceful protesters; now it was having them arrested. What did that say about where the College now stood on academic freedom and free speech?
Since then, President Beilock has declined to join every other Ivy League school president and over 300 other university presidents in signing a letter that condemned the Trump administration’s revoking federal funding to universities. She has hired Matthew Raymer ’03, a former Trump lawyer and advocate of changing the definition of birthright citizenship, to be the College’s General Counsel and, ironically, head of the Office for Visa and Immigration Services.
To be clear, I take issue with Trump’s approach to immigration and birthright citizenship because it defies our Constitution. It is also deeply personal: My parents were undocumented refugees from China following World War II, and they would have been deported, but for their three U.S.-born children, including me. That we kids were born U.S. citizens made all the difference to the life and opportunities our family had. And like the offspring of many immigrants, we felt an obligation to serve our country; after Dartmouth, I joined the Marines and later served in the Clinton Administration, and two of my brothers are also veterans.
Other people talk about moving abroad as our country’s democracy is imperiled under Trump. However, the sense of being perpetual foreigners in our own country that we Asian Americans face has only cemented my determination to stay and fight to make America achieve its promise as the land of the free. From the day it admitted me as a student, Dartmouth symbolized that shining city upon a hill that made the American dream a real possibility, for which I am forever grateful. That’s why I feel obliged to express my concerns now.
As President Beilock has noted, taking action is more important than signing letters, and her actions speak volumes. I join the many other students and alumni who have spoken out against this shameful tilt, and I urge others who share the concern to make their voices heard.
Hoyt Zia is a member of the Class of 1975. Guest columns represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
