Letter to the Editor: Praise for Beilock’s Actions
Re: Police arrest 89 individuals at pro-Palestinian protest
Use the fields below to perform an advanced search of The Dartmouth's archives. This will return articles, images, and multimedia relevant to your query.
1000 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
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.
Many of us were traumatized by the College’s decision to bring in police, including New Hampshire riot police and SWAT teams, to our quiet, rural campus on May 1. Dozens of faculty, including myself, concerned about our students’ safety, came to the Green. What I observed was a 100% peaceful demonstration supporting striking graduate and undergraduate student workers, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and demanding that the College divest from companies making or selling weapons to the Israeli military.
Re: Police arrest 90 individuals at pro-Palestinian protest
Re: Police arrest 90 individuals at pro-Palestinian protest
Re: Beilock: College President Apologizes for Community Harm
Re: VERBUM ULTIMUM: DROP THE CHARGES AGAINST CHARLOTTE HAMPTON ’26 AND ALESANDRA GONZALES ’27
We, the undersigned Jewish alumni of Dartmouth College, write to condemn the unnecessary and irrational decision to disrupt campus life by arresting 90 peaceful individuals at a Palestinian solidarity event on May 1. We reject College President Sian Leah Beilock’s assertion in a May 2 community-wide email that such protests are “exclusionary at best” and “can turn quickly into hateful intimidation where Jewish students feel unsafe” at worst. We agree with English and creative writing professor Jeff Sharlet — a Jewish faculty member at the College — in affirming in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that this week’s events were not “Jews versus protesters.” We were horrified at the images of a significant police force marching across the Green and physically assaulting a beloved Jewish professor. The College’s decision to allow and then defend state violence on campus is shameful and needlessly provocative.
Re: Police arrest 90 individuals at pro-Palestinian protest
Dear Dartmouth students: