Last Thursday, the third and final installment of the on-campus speaker roundtable “The War in Gaza and the International Context” was interrupted by student protestors affiliated with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), some of whom may face disciplinary action from the College.
The event, moderated by Professor of Political Science Galen Jackson ’09, was a roundtable discussion between Stephen M. Walt, a professor of international affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The series of panels aimed to discuss “the background to the war in Gaza and the international context,” according to its description on the College’s website.
At the event, the panelists discussed present U.S. policy towards the Middle East, ending with an audience Q&A portion. Following a hypothetical question about Israel’s best possible response to Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, several student protesters stood and began chanting. The chants included slogans such as “resistance is justified when people are occupied,” “long live Palestine,” and “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” among others, according to multiple people present at the event.
As the protestors chanted, Jackson said that he wanted the panel to have the opportunity to answer the question, but if the chanters did not stop, he would have to end the event early.
The students left the event after a few minutes of chanting and Jackson’s statement that they were in violation of College protesting policy. Members of Campus Safety Services accompanied students out of the event without force, according to several people who were present. The audience Q&A proceeded.
After about 15 to 20 minutes, Jackson told the Record, he selected a student to ask the final question. The student read a question from their phone, and, before the panel was able to respond, began chanting with another student. The chants were of similar content to those earlier in the event.
The student’s question followed Miller’s statement that only a small number of Americans care deeply about foreign policy and issues in the Middle East, according to both Jackson and a statement released by SJP on April 29.
According to Jackson, Walt told the student that he “would love” to answer the student’s question if they gave him a chance while they continued to chant. During the chanting, President of the College Maud S. Mandel walked to the stage and spoke privately to Jackson, who then announced that the event was over, several minutes before its scheduled end. The two students then walked onto the stage, stood in front of the panelist, and continued chanting at the audience.
The following day, Mandel sent an all-campus email, describing the protests at the roundtable, which she said violated the College’s principles and protest policy. She wrote that “the matter [would] be referred to the College’s standard disciplinary process.”
“Williams College has clear policies regarding protest, the boundaries of which are notably wide to allow for the open exchange of ideas and the expression of dissent,” she wrote. “Shouting down speakers is, however, a direct violation of one of the tenets we hold most dear — the ability to learn, question, and critically engage with each other openly.”
Mandel’s email detailed campus protest policy, which states that “protests may not prevent, unduly obstruct, or interfere with the normal academic, administrative, or programmatic operations of the College,” which includes “events or speakers hosted in accordance with College policy by academic departments.”
“I see this as a pretty serious infraction of College rules … because it gets to the heart of the academic enterprise,” Mandel said in an interview with the Record. “I think it was important for members of our community to understand why.”
In their April 29 statement, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) wrote that they stood by their disruption, citing that speakers at the event employed “racist stereotypes” of Arab people and engaged in “genocide denial” in their characterizations of the war in Gaza.
“The College allowing these speakers to make racist generalizations makes Arab and other marginalized students feel unsafe on campus,” the statement read. “This was one reason we chose to disrupt the event.”
In a statement to the Record, a spokesperson for SJP wrote, “We reiterate that SJP condemns the framing of the entire roundtable series.”
Dean of the College Gretchen Long told the Record that disciplinary cases related to the protest are still being investigated and that the Dean of the College’s Office is still awaiting a report from Campus Safety Services (CSS). There has not been a decision on whether potential disciplinary actions will be reportable or non-reportable per College procedures, according to Mandel and Long.
Senior Associate Dean of Students Rachel Bukanc said that materials and information relating to disciplinary cases are confidential but that, as soon as an investigation is finished, she would “move as quickly as possible” to notify the students involved.
Interrupting an event at the College constitutes an incident of the “heckler’s veto” — when a party who disagrees with another’s speech acts in a way that shuts down said speech — Mandel wrote in her all-campus email, though the term does not appear by name in the College’s protest policy.
Dean of the Faculty Lara Shore-Sheppard said that this disruption differed from the walkout-style protests hosted by SJP in recent months. “[The] key distinction would be whether it is an individual’s own expression and to what extent it affects others,” she told the Record. “So if one person or many people leave class, that’s their choice. If they, in the process of leaving class, prevent others in the class from learn- ing, then it becomes a disruption of academic activity.”
Mandel said that last Thursday’s protest was an unprecedented event on campus. “This is the first time in memory for anybody on senior staff of somebody shouting down a speaker,” she said.
In 2017, during then-President of the College Adam Falk’s tenure, two speaker events planned at the College were canceled due to student protest. After those events and others on campuses around the country, the College’s Committee on Inquiry and Inclusion submitted recommendations to Mandel after she took office, including suggestions for stakeholders to hold dialogues ahead of controversial events and for the College to develop guidelines for appropriate campus activism and protest, which she accepted in full. However, she added that a policy against shouting down a speaker was in the code of conduct since before her tenure.
Professor of Political Science Michael MacDonald noted to the Record that the College conveyed information to him and Jackson about protocol for a potential interruption.
In the last two weeks, a historic wave of protests have included encampments at institutions of higher education across the county, at which over 1,000 students have been arrested and others have faced suspension. On Monday, April 29, Mandel sent out another all-campus email addressing the possibility of an encampment, citing “reason to believe that some Williams students may be considering a comparable action here.”
She wrote that although encampments are themselves not a violation of College rules, several “relevant” rules in the Code of Conduct include disruption of College activities through noise or the “heckler’s veto,” impeding access to buildings, and threatening the safety of community members through harassment, threats, or physical violence.
“Students are entitled to assemble and voice their views and concerns,” she wrote. “As I noted last fall, I see the president’s primary job as ensuring educational opportunities that equip all students to study, explore, and take constructive action. Students must have ample room to express their ideas as part of that process.”
In the event of an encampment at the College, CSS, the Dean of the College’s Office, the Davis Center, and the Chaplains’ Office will be available to support students, Mandel added in an email to the Record. “As always, students can speak to a trusted staff member or file a bias complaint if there is an issue they need to bring to the College’s attention.”
