Have some respect for the new president of Dartmouth College, Sian Leah Beilock. A couple of students wore out her patience by responding to the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust with a demand that Dartmouth divest from Israel, "recognize the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Indigenous Palestinians and take action to stop Israeli apartheid," and further threatening "physical action." Beilock called in the Hanover Police and had the students arrested for trespassing on campus, according to a news article in the Dartmouth, the student newspaper.
Let the lawyers and professors sort out the fine points of free speech sometime later. These are moments, in institutions across America, where clarity and firmness are necessary as a way of advancing the mission of teaching and learning, including moral education. Maybe the Hanover New Hampshire police and President Beilock can combine to deliver a message that these students, sadly, had not yet learned from their families, peers, or professors. And if the lesson doesn't reach the two students, at least it will be heard and admired by the rest of the campus and by prospective students, parents, and faculty all over the world.
