The rally began with speakers assembled around the entrance to the Frank Center, named after former trustee chair John B. Frank ’78 P’12. Dozens of students gathered and echoed chants from members of Beyond Empire, and speakers made it clear that the rally was to put pressure on the board of trustees as they held their meeting to vote on the CIR proposal. 

“The administration has interests that they seem to be serving and [they] seem to be vehemently defending them, despite very clear outrage and opposition,” one protester said. 

The demonstration was attended not only by students and faculty but also by people without direct ties to the University.

“I heard about this protest because I’ve just been active in the Connecticut Palestine Solidarity Coalition, and there are some active members from the Wesleyan campus,” a 25-year-old worker from Stratford, Conn. who was present at the rally said. “It seems like people are really looking for a way to get involved, which is really exciting.”

The number of protesters grew as the rally continued, and at around 3:30 p.m. the group began to walk around Olin and the PAC. Once reaching Denison Terrace, rally leaders gave speeches calling for divestment and continued to chant slogans. The scene overlooked tailgate parties and preparations for the football night game between Wesleyan and Tufts at 7 p.m. 

After about 10 minutes, protesters began circling Olin and the PAC once more, chanting with the intention of being heard by the board of trustees. At around 4:00 p.m., they split into groups and covered all of the entrances and exits into the two buildings in anticipation of the meeting’s end. Entrances to the PAC, which had been blocked off all day, received extra Public Safety (PSafe) presence as the protesters massed around them. 

“Each of the leaders kind of split off, and they all knew where they wanted to go,” an anonymous student protester said. “It wasn’t overly structured and regimented, but people knew what they were there to do.”

Eventually, the crowd moved back toward the entrance to the Frank Center, and soon after, faculty and members of the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) who were present at the meeting had left the building. Although PSafe escorted those exiting, the demonstrators still chanted, shouted, and moved towards them. The crowd did not come into contact with or follow the faculty members or the WSA once they left. 

Once the faculty and the WSA representatives had left, protesters went to the side of Olin by Clark Hall in search of the board of trustees and President Michael Roth ’78. However, they came out of the PAC exit facing Church Street and not the main PAC exit that the board took. As they exited, the demonstrators quickly noticed and ran past Olin toward them, screaming at the group. The activists quickly cut through Exley to follow Roth and the trustees as they made their way across Church Street and Shanklin to get to the Exley parking lot. 

The two groups met in the Exley parking lot, where trustees were getting into their cars to leave. Protesters poured onto the asphalt and continued yelling as they drove away. The incident reached its peak as the activists blocked the road leading towards Lawn Avenue. Although Roth quickly left, several administrators, trustees, and PSafe officers grabbed and verbally confronted students. 

After a few minutes, a Beyond Empire leader present instructed the demonstrators to clear the road, and they began to disperse back through Exley. The rally ended around 5 p.m. at North College, where protesters continued to chant but quickly left as one of the leaders shouted that the police had been called. 

Spencer Landers can be reached at sklanders@wesleyan.edu.

Arya Dansinghani can be reached at adansinghani@wesleyan.edu.