Guidelines for free expression and dissent were initially conceived at Dartmouth after the George Wallace Incident in 1967, when students protested visiting speaker George Wallace for his pro-segregationist views. During Wallace's speech, students staged a walkout of Webster Hall, eventually re-entered the auditorium and rushed up the center aisle, and followed Wallace to his car as he attempted to leave. No students were arrested at the time, but the protests were widely condemned by the administration, alumni, community, and national news. 

DA 32: George Wallace Incident

Box 2915, Letters, postcards and clippings re: student protest against George Wallace, 1967. Inter-office communications between College vice presidents and their staff, which work to draft Vice President George H. Colton’s response to letters from alumni and community members regarding the 1967 George Wallace incident. Colton’s response emphasizes the need to prevent future incidents of this sort through regulating freedom of speech (view here).

DA 165: Dean of the Faculty records

Box 4228, Dean of the Faculty Records, Faculty meeting minutes 1958–1968  (view here).  

• p. 404-405. Faculty meeting minutes on May 15, 1967 describe the faculty and administration’s reactions to the George Wallace Incident, including the need to convene an ad hoc committee to establish guidelines regarding freedom of dissent.
• p. 407. Faculty meeting minutes on May 22, 1967 include the directive to appoint an ad hoc committee of three faculty members responsible for developing guidelines for conduct consistent with free expression and dissent.

Clarifications to the FED policy were developed in response to anti-war protests that probed the boundaries of the College’s vaguely defined “free expression and dissent.” These protests developed on campus in response to the U.S.' increasingly death-dealing Vietnam War, demanding an end to military recruiting, the abolition of Dartmouth's Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program, and U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam.

DA 165: Dean of the Faculty records, Faculty meeting minutes 1958–1968

Box 4228 (view here).

• p. 421. Faculty meeting minutes on November 3, 1967 present the Faculty-Student Committee on Dissent’s “Statement Concerning Recruiters,” which outline the College’s stance on free expression and dissent. The statement was drafted on short notice at the request of the Committee on Agenda following students’ protests against visiting military recruiters amidst the Vietnam War.
• p. 425. Faculty meeting minutes on December 11, 1967 present the Faculty-Student Committee on Dissent’s preliminary report, titled “Interviewing and Recruiting at Dartmouth.” The report details guidelines regarding free expression and dissent with regards to protesting interviewers and recruiters on campus. Meeting minutes include faculty-proposed amendments, disagreements, and questions regarding the guidelines. 
• p. 451. Faculty meeting minutes on December 9, 1967. The Faculty adopt a motion to establish a resolution on free expression and dissent on campus. The Faculty approve a motion that the Executive Committee should appoint an ad hoc committee to ensure that ROTC-related demonstrations on May 15 are conducted in accordance with the “Statement of Policy” regarding the expression of dissent.
• pp. 457-459. Faculty meeting minutes on June 3, 1968. The Faculty approves the adoption of a formal Freedom of Expression and Dissent (FED) Policy and discusses the details of its publicization, implementation, and enforcement.

 

DA-2: Vice President and Treasurer of Dartmouth College records

Box 2070, Faculty Executive Committee, 1968–1970 (view here). 

• November 6, 1967 statement prepared by the Student-Faculty Committee on Dissent. The statement discusses Dartmouth’s dedication to encouraging free expression and dissent and describes the Committee’s stance on anti-military recruiter protests, which occur in the context of intense controversy over the ROTC.
• May 11, 1968 memorandum from the Office of the Dean to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences reporting the Executive Committee of the Faculty’s findings regarding guidelines for dissent in regards to the upcoming ROTC Awards Ceremony scheduled for May 15.

 

DA-29: Office of Communications records, Campus Dissent, 1968

Box 11482.

• Dartmouth College Office of Information Services report of the faculty’s resounding opposition to amendments to the Congressional bill HR 16729, which denies eligibility for financial aid to students who engage in “riotous and disruptive” activities. The Faculty clarifies, though, that they share the Congress’ stance that “riotous behavior” is “deplorable,” reiterating the College’s policy on dissent.
• Statement by Joseph Bonomo ‘68 that the ROTC program as it stands constitutes a violation of academic and individual freedom.
• May 7, 1968 letter from the Committee on Agenda to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences regarding ROTC awards day. The Executive Committee of the Faculty has resolved that the Dartmouth community must conduct themselves in accordance with College’s guideline of dissent established in January 3, 1968.
• May 26, 1968 statement by the Paleopitus Senior Society arguing that the ROTC must be discontinued at Dartmouth and constitutes a violation of students’ academic freedom.
• May 30, 1968 report by the faculty-student committee on dissent outlining guidelines for expressing dissent during public meetings, in written material, and against interviewing and recruiting.
• May 30, 1968 recommendations from the Faculty-Student Committee on Dissent that the their May 30 guidelines be accepted; that the Faculty of Arts and Sciences should adopt a formal FED statement; that officers of the College communicate that compliance is a prerequisite to membership of the Dartmouth community; and that a permanent student-faculty Committee on Freedom of Expression and Dissent be established. 
• June 3, 1968 faculty deliberations over the wording of the Freedom of Expression and Dissent policy.

Box 2897, Freedom of expression—Dissent Committee 1969. Clippings of articles in The Dartmouth of the winter of 1969 recording students’ perception of the College’s FED guidelines and the College’s dissent policy clarifications (view here). 

 

DA-165: Dean of the Faculty records, Strauss and Knapp Case, 1966-1970

Box 5115.

• Binder 1.
  • Handwritten timeline recording the origins and developments of the Freedom of Expression and Dissent guidelines and policy.
  • May 22, 1967 meeting minutes recording the Faculty’s motion to form an ad hoc committee to discuss the “problems” associated with freedom of speech and expression of dissent at Dartmouth. 
  • November 3, 1967 meeting minutes recording the Committee on Agenda’s faculty nominations for the members of the aforementioned ad hoc committee. 
  • November 28, 1967 memorandum from Dean Thaddeus Seymour to all undergraduates discussing the recent letter published by General Lewis B. Hershey as a violation of students’ free expression and dissent.
  • January 4, 1968 memorandum announcing to all undergraduates the College’s newly promulgated policy on freedom of expression and dissent.
  • December 1, 1967 guidelines proposed by the Student-Faculty Committee on Dissent for regulating interviewing and recruiting at Dartmouth. 
  • March 11, 1968 guidelines finalizing the Student-Faculty Committee on Dissent’s recommendations for regulating various forms of expression, including speeches, films, broadcasts, written dissent, “internal civil disobedience,” and interviewing and recruiting. 
  • April 24, 1968 Executive Committee of the Faculty meeting minutes confirming the establishment of a permanent Committee on Free Expression and Dissent. 
  • May 9, 1968 meeting minutes establishing a statement of policy for the freedom of expression and dissent specifically regarding interviewers and recruiters at Dartmouth.
  • October 7, 1968 faculty discussion of disputes over the decisions by the College Committee on Standing and Conduct (CCSC) regarding student dissenters, recording the significant dissatisfaction of students.
• Folder. Timeline of antiwar protests from 1968 to 1969, including the Parkhurst Hall Occupation. Discusses recorded violations of the FED policy and President John Sloan Dickey’s efforts to render the policy enforceable by law.
• Binder 2.
  • March 28, 1969 letter from Director of Admissions Edward T. Chamberlain, Jr. to Dean Leonard Rieser discussing the materials the College might distribute to incoming freshmen regarding the Freedom of Expression and Dissent policy.
  • April 19, 1969 “Memorandum to Men Selected for the Class of 1973” from Chamberlain, Jr. emphasizing that they must abide by the “Policy Regarding Freedom and the Expression of Dissent.
  • April 18, 1969 memorandum from CFED to members of the Dartmouth Community reminding them of the FED policy.
  • Chronology and fact sheet on the ROTC issue prepared by the Ad Hoc Committee on ROTC Affairs on April 19, 1969.
  • April 21, 1969 meeting minutes recording meeting of the Executive Committee of the Faculty, called to by President Dickey. Discusses efforts to write further FED guidelines and provide alternatives to protest in preemption of the forthcoming April 22 Parkhurst sit-in.
  • April 25 1969 clarifications to FED policy by the Faculty after reviewing Parkhurst demonstration.
• Packet 1. Memorandum submitted to the Committee Advisory of the President (CAP) on behalf of Professors Dona P. Strauss and Paul S. Knapp, who were accused of violating the Freedom of Expression and Dissent guidelines for participating in the 1969 Parkhurst Occupation. Includes arguments in defense of the scope and method of the professors’ protest in the context of the Vietnam War. Includes timeline summarizing anti-Vietnam War protests, ROTC developments, and FED policy developments from January 1966 to June 1969.
• Packet 2. Comments on behalf of Dartmouth College regarding the hearings of Professors Knapp and Strauss defending the necessity to hold the professors liable.

 

DA-29: Office of Communications records, Campus Dissent 1969

Box 11482.

• Letter from William R. Meyer to A. Alexander Finelli on June 27, 1969 reporting the results of the CCSC hearings for the participants of the May 6, 1969 Parkhurst Hall Occupation.
• Report by the Dartmouth Office of Information Services discussing the two-year suspension of Professors Paul S. Knapp and Dona P. Strauss for their participation in the May 6, 1969 Parkhurst Hall Occupation. The Committee Advisory to the President found that the two professors violated the college policy on Freedom of Expression and Dissent and the “unwritten principles upholding academic freedom.”
• December 9, 1969 report by the Office of Information Services regarding the seventeen students placed on probation for protesting eugenicist visiting speaker Dr. William Shockley.
• December 10, 1969 report by the Office of Information Services regarding the resignation of eight members of the Judicial Advisory Committee for Black students in response to the College’s decision to punish the protesters of Dr. Shockley. 
• August 18, 1969 report to the Faculty of Dartmouth College from the Committee Advisory to the President regarding the Strauss & Knapp case. 
• May 7, 1968 memorandum that Dartmouth will hold its regular ROTC Awards Day Ceremony and Review on May 15 at Chase Field. The Executive Committee of the Faculty has resolved that the Dartmouth Community must comply with the attached Policy on Dissent established on January 3, 1968 during the ceremony.
• April 18, 1969 memorandum from the Committee on Freedom of Expression and Dissent with the intention of reminding students of the College’s policy on freedom of expression and dissent. The memorandum clarifies two guidelines regarding the definition of permissible non-obstructive sit-ins: that a “clear passage” to any part of a building is maintained, and that demonstrators “do not interfere with normal activities or movements in a building.” The memorandum concludes that “vigilante” action will not be tolerated.
• Report on the events of the May 6 Parkhurst Hall Seizure, including its participants, the College and state police’s response, and the aftermath on campus. 
• Speech from Parkhurst Occupation participant David H. Green ‘71, which he would have given at his trial had the CCSC not postponed his trial until his departure from Hanover. The speech discusses the injustice of the College’s judiciary committee, who “defends the status quo” and uses legalism to rationalize their oppressive power. Green argues that the people must challenge the “spirit of the law” rather than the “letter of the law.”
• May 12, 1969 CCSC statement regarding the May 6 Parkhurst Hall occupation. The statement describes the occupation as the “most serious violation” of the College Policy on FED, defends the College’s decision to summon the state police, and discusses their progress in preparing charges for forty identified student participants.
• DA-29, Box 11482, Campus Dissent, 1970–1990.
  • Retrospective timeline of the ROTC and anti-ROTC protests at Dartmouth College. Includes the promulgation of the FED policy in June 1968 and subsequent applications of the FED policy.
  • October 15, 1970 letter from College President John G. Kemeny to President Richard Nixon reiterating Dartmouth’s policy of Freedom of Expression and Dissent.
  • October 16, 1970 Dartmouth College Office of Information Services report on Dartmouth President Kemeny’s letter to President Nixon.
• 1968-1969 Student Handbook, p.30. First student handbook with codified Freedom of Expression and Dissent Policy as an enforceable regulation.

To learn more about antiwar protest at Dartmouth during this period, visit the interviews and exhibits of the Dartmouth Vietnam Project.

In November 1985, a coalition of 30-50 students, faculty, and community members erected four shanties on the Green to illustrate the living conditions of Black South Africans and demand Dartmouth's divestment from apartheid-complicit corporations.  On January 21, 1986, seventeen students, many of them members of The Dartmouth Review, smashed the shanties with sledgehammers. Both the shantytown occupation and its attack triggered widespread controversy on campus, including how the College would discipline either party to the event. During this period of deliberation, the FED policy was trimmed to its two-paragraph 1968 version, while many of its standards were transported to a new "Standards of Conduct." The Usage of the Green policy was also promulgated during this time.

DA-29: Office of Communications records

Box 11482, Campus Dissent, 1970–1990. 

• Timeline of “Dissent at Dartmouth” records the Dartmouth Community for Divestment’s (DCD) anti-apartheid shantytown and campus and College reactions to it. The timeline starts on November 15, 1985, which marks the erection of the Dartmouth Community for Divestment’s shantytown on the Green. The timeline is concluded by students’ occupation of Parkhurst Hall on January 22, 1986 calling for the immediate suspension of the ten students who attacked the shantytown.
• November 17, 1985 letter from Dean Edward J. Shanahan to participants of the shantytown protest requesting that they remove the shantytown from the Green promptly and that the Board of Trustees will not respond to their demands. 
• January 20, 1986 letter from the “Dartmouth Committee to Beautify the Green Before the Winter Carnival” to the DCD warning the DCD that they plan to remove the shanties from the Green.
• January 21, 1986 statement from Dean Shanahan to the campus addressing the students’ January 20 attack on the shantytown.
• January 22, 1986 letter from Dean Shanahan to the students occupying Parkhurst Hall requesting that they vacate the College promptly lest they be subject to arrest in violation of College policy.
• January 23, 1986 statement from the Dartmouth Alliance Against Racism and Oppression in response to the student attack on the shanties, including five constructive demands for College President David McLaughlin.    
• January 23, 1986 letter to the Dartmouth students, faculty, and administrators from the Subcommittee on Agenda announcing a moratorium of classes on January 24 to discuss the recent events on the Green.
• February 11, 1986 College News Service report discussing the arrest of eighteen students who resisted the College’s attempt to remove the shanties from the Green.
• April 11, 1986 College News Service report discussing the final charges imposed on the ten students who attacked the shanties on the Green.

 

DL-36: Jones Media center Records

Box 9243, Series 27093, Moratorium 1/24/86-1/25/86. Video file recording campus-wide discussion during a January 1986 class moratorium following the violent attack on anti-apartheid shantytowns. The central question of this session of the moratorium is: “What constitutes an appropriate expression of dissent?” (view here).

 

DA-8: Dean of the College Records

Box 62, Freedom of expression 87-88 Dean's subject files. Letters amongst Dartmouth staff discussing revisions to the Freedom of Expression and Dissent policy in the fall of 1987 following the shantytown protests. Includes copies of the updated Freedom of Expression and Dissent policy and “Code of Conduct” borne out of these discussions.

Box 66, 85-86 Demonstration Protocols.

• May 19, 1986 memorandum from Dean Shanahan to the Board of Trustees detailing demonstration protocols for “disruptive demonstrations.” Describes a “Readiness profile” for disruptive demonstrations, including the reproduction of the Freedom of Expression and Dissent policy for on-the-spot distribution.
• March 1986 version of the “Use of the College Green and Campus Grounds” policy published by the College.