Two protesters arrested at campus event with U.S. Senator John Fetterman

Two pro-Palestinian protesters — a student and a college employee — were arrested Wednesday evening during a moderated discussion with Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa. Fetterman spoke in Filene Auditorium as part of the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy's 2024 Election Speaker Series.

According to a media release from the Hanover Police Department, the two protesters, Greyson Xiao '25 and Emma Herndon, a registrar's office specialist, were charged with disorderly conduct.

The arrests come almost a year after the police in Hanover arrested two students – Roan Wade ’25 and Kevin Engel ’27 – on misdemeanor trespassing charges. Wade and Engel had set up camp on the front lawn of Parkhurst Hall to advocate, among other things, “divesting the college's endowments from all organizations involved in apartheid and its apparatus.” Six months later, police arrested 89 people at a pro-Palestinian protest against the Greens.

About 26 minutes into the event, Fetterman, Xiao and Herndon, who had been sitting in Filene, stood up and chanted, among other things, “Fetterman, you can't hide, we are accusing you of genocide.” They were stopped by officers after about a minute removed by the Hanover police.

“Is this free speech?” One of them screamed as they were escorted out of the auditorium.

A Dartmouth, according to college spokeswoman Jana Barnello Open expression facilitator — identified by The Dartmouth as Associate Dean of Student Life Edward McKenna — urged protesters “repeatedly to either end the disruption and remain at the event or leave so it can continue.”

“When attempts to resolve the situation were unsuccessful, Hanover police – who were already at the event with a sitting U.S. senator – decided to remove the two individuals from the event,” Barnello wrote.

The university did not hire Hanover police to make the arrests, according to a university official familiar with the matter.

In addition to the two people arrested, three other protesters disrupted the event “minutes earlier,” according to Barnello. The three former demonstrators stood up and began protesting the war between Israel and Hamas. Statements included “Children are dying,” “Their blood is on your hands” and “Think of your children.” A group of about 25 people also protested outside Moore Hall, where Filene lies.

The three protesters in Filene were asked to leave by the open expression moderator and did so “without incident,” Barnello said.

Fetterman responded to both the first and second disruptions during the event. After the first, he said he did not value the lives of his children more than the lives of the people of Gaza. After the second one, he said he wasn't trying to hide.

“I’m here in lights and I have a microphone,” he said. “I'm not hiding. I'm here saying, 'Let's have a conversation here.'”

According to NPR, Fetterman gave his “ardent support” to Israel after the Hamas attack on October 7, which put him “at odds” with some progressives. At the same time, Fetterman said during the event that he agreed with the students' cause.

“I wish I could talk to them,” he said. “I would say, 'You may not believe this, you may not care, but I am a very pro-Palestinian person and in some ways no different than you.' I mourn the tragedy, the death and the misery.'”

In an interview after the Oct. 23 protests, Wade claimed that McKenna repeatedly “harrased.”[ed] Student leaders” like her and Engel. Harper Richardson ’27 also claimed that McKenna “stalked” her throughout the evening.

McKenna did not respond to a request for comment about two hours after being contacted.

Facilitators of open expression — like McKenna — are being positioned as “neutral observers at specific events,” The Dartmouth reported in September. The program also provides “student organizations with guidance on freedom of speech and expression.” Freedom of speech and expression is “protected by Dartmouth regulations,” Barnello wrote.

“Our policy states: 'Protests or demonstrations shall not be discouraged…as long as the orderly operations of the institution are not intentionally impeded. Membership in the Dartmouth community entails, as a necessary condition, agreement to respect and abide by this policy,” she wrote.