A 65-year-old professor fell to the ground as police arrested a student protester at Dartmouth College.
Two student journalists covering the story that night were eventually arrested.
And a bystander visiting his father, who lived near Dartmouth College, noticed he had a broken shoulder.
This comes as Dartmouth College President Xian Lee Beilock took unusually swift action on May 1 to clear police action to clear an encampment that students had set up on the college green just two hours earlier. It was part of the collateral damage after the day was allowed.
Dr. Beilock, a cognitive scientist who studies why people choke under pressure, has since faced uproar on campus.
Presidents face an unappealing array of options in responding to the student camps that have recently sprung up across the country to protest Israel's war in Gaza.
Some universities, including Northwestern University, have reached agreements with student protesters, but they have been criticized for being too lenient. Universities such as Wesleyan University said protesters would face disciplinary action, but that if students remained nonviolent, authorities would not use force to remove tents.
And at places like the University of Chicago, administrators warned against encampments and watched them grow over several days before calling the police.
Dartmouth College stands out for its near-instantaneous response to nonviolent protests.
The students erected their tents around 6:45 p.m., arm in arm and surrounded by more than 100 supporters. After being warned to leave, campus safety officials deferred notification to the Hanover Police Department, New Hampshire State Police, and other local agencies.The arrests began around 8:50 p.m.
In an email the day after his arrest, Dr. Beilock said that allowing the occupation of the university's common spaces for ideological reasons was “at best xenophobic and at worst a violation of what we have seen on other campuses in recent days.” “The situation could be reversed,” he said. It quickly descends into hateful threats, and Jewish students feel unsafe. ”
Moshe L. Gray, the longtime executive director of the Dartmouth branch of the Orthodox Jewish organization Chabad, said Dr. Beilock has taken a “very principled stand” since Oct. 7, and that he has outperformed his Ivey colleagues. He said it was outstanding.
“She has a duty to keep this school safe,” Gray said. “Jewish students feel that she is doing that for them.”
But for some faculty and staff, using law enforcement to arrest nonviolent protesters violated the agreements that should exist on college campuses.
History professor Woody Greenberg said, “We should be living examples of how to deal with divisive topics. The most important part of this process is that we don't treat each other as enemies.'' ” he said. “Deploying police to protesters is the antithesis of engaging with one another in good faith.”
There was also talk of injuries.
Andrew Tefft, who was visiting his father from out of town, was walking to the green space as police moved in. He said he was confused when officers ordered him to move because he was not familiar with the university or the protesters.
“I guess I was stupid enough to say, 'Where?'” Tefft, 45, said in an interview. “I feel my phone fall out of my hand and go flying, and I feel my arm being pulled. It feels like metal cuffs are following me. I'm like, 'Oh, I'm going to get arrested.' did. ”
He reportedly broke his shoulder during a scuffle with police. According to his arrest report, Tefft did not comply with commands and acted aggressively during his arrest.
“I grew up in this town,” said Tefft, who has fond memories of watching bonfires on the green. “This is the craziest story that ever happened to me.”
Anneliese Orlek, the university's former director of Jewish studies, said she was knocked to the ground when she tried to take a cellphone from a police officer and began taking video of the arrest.
Student reporter Alessandra Gonzalez witnessed the professor's arrest. She was then arrested as well. She approached another student reporter, news editor Charlotte Hampton, who also ended up being zip-tied. In interviews, both men said they had media identification cards.
Local and state police officials did not respond to requests for interviews.
David Farber, a professor of American history at the University of Kansas who studies the 1960s, said the last time so many campuses turned to police to confront student protesters was in 1970 during the anti-war protests. It is said that He said students back then were far more militarized than they are now, dropping incendiary bombs on campus buildings across the country.
“What's different about this period is that so many collisions happened so quickly and so many officials immediately called the police,” he said.
In a raucous online meeting with faculty on May 6 that quickly reached its 500-person capacity, Dr. Beilock tried to explain her quick response.
“Continuous encampments do not guarantee safety,” she said. “Especially if people outside of Dartmouth decide to participate for their own purposes,” she said, citing Columbia University, adding that while her outsiders also participated in the protests, they were certainly not the majority. Ta.
Many teachers were not appeased. They said the violence came from police, not protesters.
Former Dartmouth College President Carolyn Deaver wrote “5 tents” in a chat comment during Dr. Beilock's conversation, which was echoed by many faculty members.
“This is not Colombia,” another teacher wrote.
“Please drop the charges,” another person wrote.
History professor Matthew J. Garcia said Dartmouth adopted big-city solutions for the quiet, rural town of Hanover.
“It's like a place out of time,” he said, adding: “It's ridiculous to say this is a hotbed of revolution.”
The student newspaper also criticized the university in an editorial, urging the university to urge authorities to drop the charges against the reporters.
“The university should be embarrassed,” the newspaper said. “We look forward to a prompt public apology from Chancellor Sian-Lee Beilock.”
University administrators initially relented, saying they supported the student reporter's right to clear his name “through the legal process.”
But as backlash grew and press freedom advocates criticized the university, Dr. Beilock relented, writing in a column in the student newspaper that the reporters should not have been arrested. “We are working with local authorities to ensure this error is corrected,” she wrote.
Charges against the reporters were dropped.
There may be some people on campus who are not angry about the demands for resignation. Perhaps considering the high social costs of supporting Dr. Beilock, the student council publicly voted a motion of no confidence in him by a vote of 13 to 2, with three abstentions. After the student council president vetoed the public vote due to insufficient deliberation, another vote held behind closed doors resulted in a 9-8 vote, with two abstaining and the decision overturned. All students are currently voting on the no-confidence motion.
The faculties are divided.
“Our president is Jewish himself and has always been aware of how Jewish students feel on campus,” said anthropology professor Sergei Kang. He said the students who took part in the protests were chanting offensive and “borderline anti-Semitic” slogans such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” (Many Palestinian supporters argue that the phrase is a cry for Palestinian dignity).
“When they held hands around the tent, they were ready for battle,” Dr. Kang said, adding that the green “belongs to all of us.”
Dartmouth's board of directors also supports this action. Dartmouth Board Chair Liz Cahill Lempres said in an email to the Times that she has spoken with all board members and “all unequivocally support Dr. Beilock.”
In any case, arrests may not deter protesters. Months before tents became a symbol of pro-Palestinian activism on college campuses across the country, Kevin Engel and other students set up two tents outside the Dartmouth administration building to call for divestment from Israel.
Mr. Engel, a first-year student, and another student were arrested on trespassing charges, an early sign that Dr. Beilock is serious about cracking down on policy violators.
Engel said Dr. Beilock's decision encouraged student activists.
“We're not going to stop,” he said. “Palestine will be liberated in our lifetime. The students are carrying the burden of taking on that job because there's really no one else.”
