Farquharson: Fusion, A Way for the Future
This article is featured in the 2024 Commencement & Reunions special issue.
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This article is featured in the 2024 Commencement & Reunions special issue.
This article is featured in the 2024 Commencement & Reunions special issue.
We appreciate that our colleagues working on student well-being face incredible pressure and are constrained by Dartmouth’s definition of the problem. We were, nonetheless, stunned by the framing of the May 23 “Day for Community” as a “journey of reflection, connection and community building following the protest on the Green on May 1,” according to a message from the College’s chief health and wellness officer, Estevan Garcia. Last Thursday’s event was advertised as an opportunity for healing — healing, apparently, from the peaceful May 1 protest, but not from the mass arrests, physical injuries and collective harm inflicted on students, faculty and staff by the police response to that protest.
On May 2 — one day after the pro-Palestinian protest on the Green — Dartmouth Student Government sent an email to the student body about the prior night’s events. In their message to campus, DSG wrote that it was “deeply troubled by the administration’s decision to arrest … students, faculty and community members.” DSG expressed concern for student safety, the prohibition of arrested students from some campus spaces and the insufficient dialogue between administration and protesters. Over the following days, DSG continued to discuss the protest and their next steps. During a public meeting on May 5, DSG passed a vote of no confidence in College leadership, which Student Body President Jessica Chiriboga ’24 vetoed. Chiriboga said she rejected the motion “because several senators expressed interest in deliberating [the issue] further,” according to past reporting by The Dartmouth. DSG then moved to a closed session that same day, where it held a second vote of no confidence — one that failed to pass. Following this second vote, DSG then passed the decision on to their constituents by organizing a student body referendum, which resulted in a slight majority voting no confidence in Beilock.
It is an understatement to say I am disgusted at Dartmouth Student Government and its failure to consistently follow through with actions that address all student concerns. I am repulsed by DSG members prioritizing their relationships with the College administration over what some attendees of the May 5 meeting requested: a no-confidence vote against College President Sian Leah Beilock after her administration authorized police to break up the May 1 protest on the Green.
To the Board of Trustees:
On May 1, the Graduate Organized Laborers of Dartmouth-United Electrical Workers — the College’s graduate student union — began its strike for a fair contract. Now, many of us graduate students are wondering why or how we should participate. I’m writing to say that I am striking, and my fellow graduate students should too. The cost of attending Dartmouth’s graduate programs has spiraled out of control. In the last five years, we have experienced an 83% increase in rent without a sufficient change in pay. Graduate workers currently have no paid medical or disability leave. International students face the extra burdens of immigration fees and precarity due to their visa status. Parents are especially financially burdened by insufficient childcare support. These barriers mean that higher education at Dartmouth is only truly accessible to the privileged few. These issues must be resolved for the sake of our workers and the future of our programs.
More than 30% of Dartmouth’s undergraduate students have voted “no confidence” in College President Sian Leah Beilock, and now Dartmouth faculty voted yesterday to formally censure her. These events reflect campus concerns about the administration’s biased and punitive response toward pro-Palestinian campus advocacy since October 2023. The students’ vote and faculty censure should serve as an urgent call for alumni engagement.
Re: Police arrest 89 individuals at pro-Palestinian protest
This article is featured in the 2024 Green Key Edition special issue.
During my junior year college tour trip, I allowed my dad to drag me two hours north of Boston because he told me that he had “never met anyone from Dartmouth who didn’t love it.” Well, I have. I’ve been one of those people, too. During my first two terms here, not only did I not love Dartmouth. I hardly even liked it.
This article is featured in the 2024 Green Key special issue.
I, like most of the Dartmouth student body, bore witness to the night of May 1 as state police descended on nonviolent protesters on our Green, throwing an elderly woman to the ground and arresting, among others, two Dartmouth reporters. Unlike many others, though, my initial reaction was not shock. I’ll admit that it was surreal seeing a place I have come to associate with afternoon naps and scenic sunsets swallowed by such violence, but it did not come as a major surprise to me.
College President Sian Leah Beilock coordinated with police to preemptively suppress a nonviolent student protest on May 1, all in the name of campus safety and free speech for all. Her authorization of riot police, armored cars and violent arrests threatens to usher in a new era of authoritarian leadership on campus that upends decades of precedent. The College’s leadership, including faculty, has traditionally viewed peaceful protest as an opportunity to educate as well as to practice and model restraint, even in the presence of encampments. Restraint and education are particularly important when the world is on fire.
Re: College President Apologizes for Community Harm
As Dartmouth students and advocates for social justice, we are deeply disturbed by the recent events on our campus. On May 1, students gathered on the Green to peacefully protest Israel’s violence against Palestinians. College President Sian Leah Beilock’s administration chose to fight that peace with force, authorizing Hanover Police to take action against the protesters — which ultimately led to the presence of state troopers armed in riot gear and the arrests of 89 individuals. This response casts a shadow over the principles of free speech and student activism that we hold dear as members of the Dartmouth Rockapellas.
We, concerned parents of current Dartmouth students and alumnae/alumni, are writing to voice our strong objection to the Dartmouth administration’s response to the peaceful protest on the Green on May 1. We are especially disappointed that the College allowed state law enforcement onto campus, and we condemn the physical violence used against peaceful students, faculty, staff and community members. We ask that the College call for charges to be dropped against all students involved in the nonviolent protest and end their bans from spaces on campus.
I am writing to express my dismay at the militarized repression of student protesters against the genocide in Gaza, and at history professor Annelise Orleck’s brutalization by the riot police on May 1. Orleck co-chairs the women’s, gender and sexuality studies program where I am appointed. Her arrest and temporary ban from campus may be read as a collateral assault on the field and on women more generally.
I praise College President Sian Leah Beilock for her decisive actions to maintain order and protect students on May 1. Beilock has done an incredible job balancing the First Amendment rights of protesters with the need to protect all members of the Dartmouth community and ensure all students are included in all areas of campus.
We, the presidents of Chabad and Hillel, on behalf of our respective organizations, join in expressing our concern over the state of student safety and balanced discourse at Dartmouth.