Five Dartmouth students broke their hunger strike on Friday after 10 days, having hoped to force the college to reconsider a proposal to divest from six arms companies they say are directly supporting Israel's war in Gaza.
But one former student, Roan Wade, was still continuing the strike as of Monday afternoon with the protesters’ demands still unmet.
The college suspended Wade and another student, banning them both from the campus, after they were suspected of participating in a sit-in where two staff members were allegedly hurt. Student accounts of the event say the sit-in was largely peaceful, and that a student was knocked to the ground by a campus security officer.
On day 14 of the strike, Wade says they’re still committed to supporting Gaza.
“While we've been present in the library every day, showing that we're hunger striking, and six of us have been on hunger strike, [Dartmouth has] ignored us entirely,” Wade told NHPR. “They've ignored all of our demands, and they've told us that they're not negotiating, which I think is a very concerning step for the college to take and its reaction in response to the student movement.”
The college's board of trustees last month voted against advancing the divestment proposal.
Wade and the other student, both graduating seniors, were not allowed to participate in Dartmouth’s commencement ceremony held over the weekend, according to Wade. Wade was one of two students arrested in 2023 after setting up tents outside school administrative offices.
The first time the students decided to hunger strike, Wade said the college held negotiations and seemed to care about the student movement.
Yet, after three encampments and holding numerous protests, the college has not been dissuaded on its stance on the divestment proposal. But Wade said the college’s response will not deter them or other students from participating in forms of civil disobedience.
“Ultimately, we decided to engage in a hunger strike, despite this level of repression that we're facing, because we needed to show to the college that they can choose to engage in these tactics of suppressing the student movement on our campus, but that doesn't mean we will stop protesting,” Wade said.
Wade said being barred from campus means they haven’t been able to retrieve their belongings from the dorms. In the meantime, they’ve been couch surfing and staying with friends.
“The college is abandoning its pre-existing, internal judicial process and instead putting students on this form of immediate suspension that without giving us any warning cuts us off from our food, our housing, our medication, our employment, our education, everything without giving us any backup, any time to prepare, which is deeply concerning because as of yet, they've been targeting low-income students who don't have the means to go elsewhere,” Wade said.
“My intention is not to stop protesting, but mainly to physically recover so that I can continue to push Dartmouth to divest.”
A representative for the college did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
