Six Dartmouth students are on a hunger strike amid escalating tensions with college administrators over their handling of protests against the war in Gaza.
One of the hunger strikers, Dartmouth Senior Greyson Xiao, said the group will refuse food until the school reconsiders its recent decision to reject a proposal to divest from companies supplying the Israeli war effort.
“What we’re here to say is that the more they suppress us, the stronger we’re going to get, the more people Dartmouth is inadvertently rallying behind us,” Xiao said. “The struggle for Palestine will never stop and we’re willing to go through a hunger strike and we’re willing to do whatever it takes ‘til Dartmouth complies with our demands to divest and for the board of trustees to pass the divestment proposal.”
The hunger strike comes days after a sit-in where Dartmouth administrators say protesters injured a campus security officer and a staff member. Pro-Palestinian organizers dispute that account and claimed in a social media post that it was the officer who “grabbed, shoved, and elbowed protesters.”
Dartmouth also suspended a student activist and banned them from campus following the sit-in last week, though the college would not confirm the student’s name.
Dartmouth senior Roan Wade has self-identified as the person who was suspended on the social media account of the Dartmouth New Deal Coalition. Wade was one of two students arrested in 2023 after setting up tents outside school administrative offices.
Xiao and the other students initially gathered outside of Parkhurst Hall on Tuesday in support of Wade. An online petition now has more than 400 signatures asking for the college to overturn Wade’s suspension.
Xiao is troubled by what they see as the administration’s crackdown on anti-war protests on campus.
“Dartmouth is using the, like, sort of iron hand method to repress Palestine activism," Xiao said.
The six hunger strikers gathered at Dartmouth’s Baker Library on Tuesday and Xiao said they plan to return every day until the college reconsiders their demands. Dartmouth spokesperson Jana Barnello said the safety of the students’ health and well being is important.
“We are deeply concerned about reports that a small group of students will engage in a hunger strike. Dartmouth will offer assistance and resources to any student who is participating,” Barnello said.
The turmoil has also reached beyond Dartmouth’s campus.
The Black Alumni at Dartmouth Association (BADA) sent an email presenting student protesters’ accounts of last week’s sit-in. In a letter, BADA’s president, Dr. Maria Cole, said the email was sent in response to Dartmouth administrators asking the association to share the college’s account of what occurred at the sit-in.
“However, after seeing a video of one of the students being knocked to the ground – an image that didn’t align with the College’s statement, I felt it was more appropriate to provide you with the students’ statements in order for you to have a better perspective to form your own opinion,” Cole wrote.
Cole also said many alumni have expressed concern over the college’s lack of stance on joining a coalition of colleges and universities in defending higher education.
“This moment requires moral clarity, courage, and integrity. Words like ‘principles’ and ‘values’ lose meaning when they cannot be clearly articulated and demonstrated – or worse, when they are used to alienate and divide,” Cole wrote.
The letter resulted in the group temporarily having its college email suspended. Cheryl Bascomb, vice president for alumni relations, wrote in a letter on Tuesday that the group’s email has been reinstated.
“The decision to temporarily pause access was consistent with Dartmouth policy and past practice when there are questions about the appropriate use of Dartmouth email by a volunteer,” Bascomb wrote. “We look forward to working with the BADA executive board to clarify the steps leaders should take in releasing statements representing the entire organization.”
