On Friday, a new, still-unnamed coalition of student activist groups held a rally in the center of the Green. Approximately 75 students, faculty and community members attended.
This protest — one of dozens nationwide on May Day — marked the second anniversary since 89 individuals were arrested at a pro-Palestinian encampment on the Green in 2024. On the first anniversary, members of the Palestine Solidarity Coalition erected tents in front of Parkhurst Hall and demanded that the College refuse to cooperate with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. After two days of negotiations, the College increased its immigration legal fund for international students from $2,000 to $5,000 and committed to releasing a formal response to the divestment proposal submitted by the Dartmouth Divest for Palestine coalition.
Members of Dartmouth student groups Co-FIRED, Dartmouth Democrats, Fossil Free Dartmouth, FUERZA Farmworkers’ Fund, the Graduate Organized Laborers of Dartmouth United Electrical Workers, New Hampshire Youth Movement, PSC and the Student Workers Collective at Dartmouth coordinated to host the rally. Members of other community organizations, including the Upper Valley Immigration Solidarity Group, Upper Valley Jewish Voice for Peace and the Upper Valley Singing Resistance were also in attendance.
Rally organizer Xander Dalke ’27 said in an interview that the rally was “not hosted by or officially tied” to any particular group.
“It’s members of all of these groups coming together to create something new, which is this coalition,” Dalke said.
Dalke said the coalition — which has not “decided on [a name] yet” — will “highlight all of the different things” that the coalition is “working on.”
“[This rally] was just about demonstrating unity and solidarity between the groups and kicking off this kind of new, hopeful era in organizing on campus,” he said.
SWCD member and rally organizer Harper Richardson ’27 said in an interview that the coalition is composed of individuals “who want to create a broader-tent movement fighting back against fascism.”
The rally, which began at 4 p.m. and lasted until 5:15 p.m., was led by student organizers who delivered a series of speeches. Attendees also repeated chants, including “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here,” “We want justice, we want peace, U.S. out the Middle East!” and “Dartmouth, Dartmouth, make a vow! Divest from apartheid now.”
PSC member Ramsey Alsheikh ’26 said in a speech that the “struggles” the coalition will address — including Palestinian justice and activism against ICE — “cannot be separated” from each other.
“There are many crises in the world today which demand unified action,” he said. “If we only focus on our individual causes, we have no chance of confronting the giant, massive tide of fascism which has taken over this country.”
History professor Annelise Orleck, who was shoved to the ground by a Hanover Police officer and arrested at the protest on May 1, 2024, said in a speech that this rally was “to redeem the Green” after the protest in 2024 was “violently repressed.”
“We need to support each other on this campus, and some people get support and others don’t,” Orleck said. “It’s inequitably distributed. So that’s why I’m here.”
Richardson explained that the event was collectively organized in advance.
“We had a series of meetings for about a month … trying to bring more people into the coalition,” Richardson said. “We knew it needed to happen to keep the trend of annual May 1 protests.”
Rally organizer and SWCD member Felipe Mendonça ’27 said in an interview that the rally was a “good opportunity” to show that student activists “have actual power in changing campus politics.”
“I really hope students will see that there are organizing groups on campus that they can join and get engaged with because [activism] groups need more people,” Mendonça said.
Referencing the “craziness” of the College’s past responses to May Day protest, Mendonça spoke to the importance of continuing protest movements at Dartmouth in an interview.
“It’s important for us to be here [on the Green] again, just to show the College that cracking down on student protest won’t make us shut down, and that people are still organizing on campus,” he said.
Alsheikh, who participated in the 2025 encampment, said in his speech that the recent history of May Day protests marks “a very important moment” in student activism at Dartmouth.
“When the encampment was put up right outside of Parkhurst, … we won the College’s first action on ICE, where they made an official policy that they wouldn’t allow ICE on campus without a warrant,” he said.
Fossil Free Dartmouth member Maya Beauvineau ’27 said in an interview that she wanted the College to “get rid of” the institutional restraint policy. The policy was adopted in December 2024 to better protect the freedom of expression of Dartmouth community members, according to a campus-wide email from College President Sian Leah Beilock.
“In a time when we’re seeing such outrageous violence … I think it’s incredibly harmful and untrue for an institution like Dartmouth to claim to have a neutral stance or to encourage students and faculty members to practice restraint,” Beauvineau said.
Rally attendee Leo Stritikus ’27 told The Dartmouth that he believes “there is no such thing as institutional neutrality” with respect to where the College’s endowment is invested.
“The College supports the fossil fuel industry,” Stritikus said. “The College supports the arms industry. All these things are contributing to our country’s slow march towards fascism.”
The College announced that endowment will no longer be directly invested in fossil fuels on Oct. 8, 2021. Last May, the Dartmouth Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility unanimously rejected a proposal from Dartmouth Divest for Palestine — a coalition of Dartmouth students, alumni, faculty, staff and community members — to divest from six arms manufacturers.
Maya Kellett ’29, a speaker and member of Fossil Free Dartmouth, told The Dartmouth that one of her goals in protesting was to urge the Board of Trustees to separate the Irving Energy Institute from oil company funding.
“We need to really work to make sure that money that funds [Irving] research is not fueled by fossil fuel profit,” Kellett said.
Mendonça said that going forward the coalition plans to “get anyone who’s not involved with organizing to show up, just have a good time and find friends inside organizing.”
College spokesperson Jana Barnello declined to comment.
Ramsey Alsheikh ’26 is a former opinion editor and current opinion columnist for The Dartmouth. He was not involved with writing or editing this article.
Max Hubbard '29 is a reporter from Boston, Mass., and is majoring in government and minoring in French. In his free time, he enjoys listening to music, running and watching movies.
