Vox Clamantis in Protest

Students have never suffered in silence.

1774

Student complaints about lousy food reach die state capital. Governor Wentworth intervenes. He tells Dr. Wheelock, "Twenty oxen badly saved had better be cast into the river and perish, than one month's improper diet be given the students."

1832

Complaints from the freshmen that the stove in their recitation room is malfunctioning fall on deaf ears. The freshmen turn up the heat. They toss the stove into the Connecticut River.

1863

The faculty deletes the names of '63s serving in the army from the graduation program. In response, the seniors on campus boycott classes. The programs are reprinted.

1879

Two seniors are expelled when they protest the College ban on public reading in church. The pair are reinstated only after the entire student body apologizes for the initial protest and votes to support the ban.

1934

Students gather in 105 Dartmouth to hold an antiwar rally.

1940

A petition signed by 1,000 Dartmouth undergraduates urging non-participation of the United States in the European conflict is mailed to President Roosevelt.

1952

Two thousand students march on the dean's house in protest of Dartmouth's new alcohol policy.

1967

Student uproar over a speech by Governor George Wallace sets a new standard for civil disturbance in Hanover. Police Chief Dennis Cooney describes the incident as "the worst behavior I have seen in 22 years."

1969

Protesting the ROTC presence on campus, students occupy Parkhurst for 12 hours before the front doors are broken open by state troopers. Fifty-six people are arrested and 40 undergrads are jailed. In a letter responding to a photograph in this magazine that showed the arrest of a student, a concerned Dartmouth dad writes, "Where is he going to get a job?"

1985

Shanties are built on the Green to protest the College's investments in companies doing business in South Africa.

1990

Twenty-five hundred people rally on the Green protesting the use of a Hitler quote in the masthead of TheDartmouth Review.

1994

A Trustee ruling to maintain ROTC barely causes a ripple. Only about 100 students rally in protest.

1997

Students pile more than 70,000 pennies on the Parkhurst steps in a symbolic plea for a new weight room.

Photographs of campus protests, like this one from 1971, have acquired the patina of nostalgia.