Last Week’s Sit-In at Laird

23 May 2024

Like many campuses, we have experienced the challenges of maintaining a commitment to free speech while also respecting the need to ensure a safe and functional campus experience for the entire community. Over the past several months, students have been able to express their views about Israel–Gaza, and their interest in divestment, through petitions, marches, rallies, Board protests, and an encampment on the Chapel Lawn.

Last week’s sit-in at Laird by the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) was a test of our ability as a community to resolve a situation that extended the right to protest beyond allowable limits. As I noted in my message to the campus Friday, we had tried hard to prevent a situation arising that might require disciplinary action — or even the aggressive tactics some other colleges and universities have resorted to, such as police intervention — to address. 

Many groups on campus played a constructive role in this process. As an administration, we felt it was important to be clear, both in a message before the Chapel encampment appeared, and as events unfolded at Laird, about where the boundaries of College policy were and what consequences would result from violating them, so that protesters could make informed choices about their participation. Staff from several college offices provided information and support to students, and security who remained on the scene were by all accounts a calm and professional presence. A number of faculty were helpful in offering advice to students in Laird and discussing the students’ concerns with me on Saturday afternoon.

The student protesters themselves behaved in a polite and peaceful manner while inside Laird, but ultimately some chose to violate direct instructions from a college official to vacate the building Friday night, and were placed on disciplinary probation, as they had been notified would be the case.

In an email to the students occupying Laird early Saturday morning, I reiterated my position on several of the issues we had previously discussed, as well as responding to their demand that I meet with them on site in Laird. I wrote, in part:

Several of the items you mention are things that I have already offered, or said that I am willing to consider. The reason I have made a point of offering meetings up front, before any sit-in or impasse, is to establish that I see communication as a given, not a negotiating tactic. I was, and am, willing to meet with you — not as a result of threats or demands, but because you are deeply committed Carleton students whose views are important to the institution and to me. 

I invited the students to Nutting House that afternoon for a meeting, but they were not willing to leave Laird for that purpose. I also reiterated my willingness to hold two open meetings for the community — something we had discussed in a prior meeting on Tuesday — at which I and other administrators will discuss the College’s position on divestment and other issues related to the war in Gaza. Two open meetings are now scheduled for next week.

In the end, the student protesters were able to weigh what they felt they had expressed and gained through their actions alongside the more severe consequences they knew would result from staying in Laird an additional night, and the ten remaining protesters left Laird late Saturday afternoon. 

I sent the SJP students an email yesterday following up on several of the issues they raised, and also noting that our willingness to move forward in these areas will depend on their ability to maintain open communication and operate in good faith. Our having permitted the SJP encampment to remain undisturbed on the Chapel Lawn for two weeks now was an act of good faith on our part that we did not expect to be met by a second, additional occupation. More specifically, I indicated to the students that the two open meetings scheduled for next week will not take place as scheduled should they choose to disrupt tomorrow’s Honors Convocation. 

I know that the desire for a celebratory Commencement is also very much on the minds of many members of the Class of 2024 and their families. We respect the desire of the SJP students to stimulate community awareness, and administrative attention, around the devastating humanitarian crisis in Gaza. But as we look ahead to the final weeks of the term, I encourage those students to distinguish between effective, visible protest, and disruption of College events and activities that are important to their fellow students and others in the community. 

I have tried to be open about the administration’s goals and thinking about this matter, both with the student protesters and with the community, because I recognize that this weekend’s sit-in is not an isolated situation. It takes its place as part of an ongoing current of student and community action, reaction, and response to events beyond the campus that goes back to the 2020 discussions following George Floyd’s murder, and that will likely continue in the future, not only on the question of Israel and Palestine, but on other issues and tensions related to next fall’s presidential election. It is important that we work together as a community to establish and respect boundaries, expectations, and trust that will allow us to engage this and future issues in an open and constructive manner.

Featured in Carleton Today, May 23, 2024