HANOVER — On a warm and windy Thursday afternoon, about 150 people gathered on the lawn in front Baker-Berry Library at Dartmouth College as part of a nationwide protest “in defense of higher education,” as English and Creative Writing Professor Patricia Stuelke described it.

The second annual National Day of Action for Higher Education was organized by a collective of higher education groups including the American Association of University Professors. The Coalition for Action in Higher Education describes the “coordinated effort” as a way to “link the struggle for free speech around Palestine to the financial, political, and ideological assaults on higher and public education.”

After describing the value of a university as a “beautiful idea, a beautiful practice of people coming together from all over the world to think, to be, to teach and to learn” and as a tool “against the power of the state and of other forces that might seek to destroy it,” Stuelke linked the event in Hanover to Israel’s war across the world in Gaza.

“I hope we choose to stand in solidarity with our colleagues, scholars, writers, poets, authors and scientists in Gaza, where currently there are no universities left standing,” Stuelke said to the crowd. “To defend the university is to defend all of our rights to learn, to teach, to live.”

English and creative writing professor Anjuli Raza Kolb said for her the event was about “gathering in solidarity” against the “crackdown on speech and freedom of expression” and ensuring that Dartmouth upholds its values, “particularly the safety of international students.”

From one look at the crowd at Dartmouth, it was clear that everyone participating was there for their own reasons, many of which linked back to Israel’s war in Gaza and President Donald Trump’s recent directives to defund higher education and scientific research. Many attendees also specifically called out Dartmouth College and its administration.

Signs read “ICE off our campus,” “A university without immigrants is just a bank,” “End visa terrorism,” “Hands off higher education” and “science makes us better.”

Attendees also took turns reading a statement dictated by Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate and legal permanent resident who was detained in connection with his pro-Palestinian activism on campus, and reading poems.

Many participants held signs reading “Free Mohsen,” a reference to Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian activist with ties to the Upper Valley who was taken into custody by federal agents in Colchester, Vt., on Monday.

Despite the wide range of motivations, speakers focused on connecting the many issues that had drawn them to the event.

Student Ramsey Alsheikh called on the Dartmouth administration to protect “freedom of thought (and) freedom of expression” for its students, faculty and staff and to stop all investments that support Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

“Certainly, if you looked at this administration’s response to Trump’s attacks on higher education, you would think that the highest priority was protecting our bottom line at all costs. But as our educators and our students here really know, this is not the actual case, the true priority of Dartmouth College is to serve its students,” Alsheikh said to the crowd.

Another Dartmouth student, who declined to give his name, specifically called on Dartmouth President Sian Leah Beilock to stand up to the Trump administration and issue a statement in solidarity with Harvard University.

On Monday, Harvard became the first university to openly defy the administration’s demands related to activism on campus, antisemitism and diversity, despite threats by the Trump Administration to cancel research grants and rescind the school tax-exempt status.

“When the administration here says that staff and faculty should practice what they call ‘institutional restraint,’ they’re directly playing into Trump’s goal of silencing people, to silence important voices and conversations that deserve clear perspectives,” the student said to the crowd.

“President Beilock has been vocal about her commitment to protecting Dartmouth’s values,” a college spokesperson said in a statement responding to the student’s critiques.

“Dartmouth’s academic mission and core values remain the same. And, as always, I will do everything I can to ensure we continue to live by our values by supporting our faculty, students, and staff — especially those among us who are most vulnerable,” Beilock wrote in an April 7 message to the college.

Grady Welsh, a lab manager at Dartmouth, also attended the walkout to “support the Harvard faculty’s effort and the Harvard administration’s effort to protect academic freedom and continue the funding for science.”

Welsh carried a sign reading, “Science makes us better.” While he said he’s “not an activist” he felt it was important to participate in the event to protest the Trump administration’s attempts to coerce institutional changes at universities and eliminate funding for science.

As an “early career researcher” who hopes to start a PhD program or attend graduate school, the federal funding cuts for grants and scientific research could be very impactful to him.

“Grants in general fund young people’s research and by defunding that we’re really cutting the legs out of the scientific progress and scientific research of those early career researchers,” Welsh said.

Many Upper Valley residents from outside of the college also attended Thursday’s event both to stand in solidarity with the Dartmouth community and to protest the Trump administration.

Lebanon resident Rynn Hazel said she felt it was important to join the protest because the university is a “catalyst” for activism in the wider Upper Valley.

“I support faculty and staff being able to express things freely, it’s been a trend in any society in any history book that once restrictions on speech and teachers and thinkers become more and more common, regardless of any sort of partisan justification, go parallel one to one with economic downfall, with turmoil and hate crimes,” Hazel said.

Clare Shanahan can be reached at cshanahan@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.