HANOVER — A uneventful “Gaza Solidarity Rally” drew around 200 students, faculty, staff and community members to the Dartmouth College Green on Thursday evening, where demonstrators called on the college to divest from corporations connected to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and defended the freedom to protest on campus.

The gathering, organized by Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, was energetic but drama-free compared to campus protests about the ongoing Israel-Gaza War and free speech debates that have flared up across the country — resulting in arrests and violent clashes with law enforcement.

The detention of hundreds of protesters connected to colleges and universities across the country have unjustly penalized “our colleagues, comrades and friends,” said Patricia Stuelke, an associate professor in the English Department.

A letter from demonstration organizers committed “unwavering solidarity with students across the nation enacting Gaza solidarity encampments in protest against Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, as well as with the faculty and staff who are fighting the draconian responses of their institutions’ administrations.”

“In so doing, we affirm our commitment to advocating for the fundamental rights of Palestinians to self-determination and equality and for a free Palestine,” the letter stated.

A handful of officers with Dartmouth’s Department of Safety and Security stood on the outskirts of the gathering, along with one Hanover Police officer on a bicycle.

Following the demonstration, Dartmouth spokesperson Jana Barnello wrote over email that there is “nothing to add from us at this point.”

Nationally, the recent wave of campus protests have spurred crackdowns by law enforcement — welcomed by school administrators — that saw more than 100 demonstrators arrested at Columbia University in New York City, more than 40 at Yale, and more than 50 at the University of Texas in Austin.

But the controversy over the criminal prosecution of student demonstrators — albeit just two — has already roiled the Dartmouth campus for months.

Many demonstrations this month have been similar to the encampment-style protest two students on Dartmouth’s campus were engaged in when they were arrested in October. Kevin Engel, a first-year student, and junior Roan Wade were in a tent protesting in front of the college’s main administrative building. The two students face misdemeanor criminal trespassing charges, with a trial scheduled to continue later this spring.

On Thursday evening, demonstrators chanted, “Gazans dying in your face, gimme, gimme ‘Brave Space,’ ” a riff on the mantra often repeated by Dartmouth President Sian Beilock when encouraging the free exchange of ideas on campus.

The letter from protest organizers notes “with grave concern” the similarities between the arrests across the country and the “disturbing recent events on Dartmouth’s own campus.”

Despite those concerns, the protest in Hanover was docile compared to events elsewhere in the country.

After a tent encampment popped up Thursday at Indiana University Bloomington, police with shields and batons shoved into protesters and arrested 33. Hours later at the University of Connecticut, police tore down tents and arrested one person.

And at Ohio State University, police clashed with protesters just hours after they gathered Thursday evening. Those who refused to leave after warnings were arrested and charged with criminal trespass, said university spokesperson Benjamin Johnson, citing rules barring overnight events.

Columbia officials said that negotiations were showing progress as the school’s self-imposed early Friday deadline to reach an agreement on dismantling the encampment came and went.

Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, faced a significant — but largely symbolic — rebuke from faculty Friday but retains the support of trustees, who have the power to hire or fire the president.

The University of Southern California canceled the school’s May 10 graduation ceremony. The announcement was made a day after more than 90 protesters were arrested on campus. The university said it will still host dozens of commencement events, including all the traditional individual school commencement ceremonies. Tensions were already high after USC canceled a planned commencement speech by the school’s pro-Palestinian valedictorian, citing safety concerns.

Israel’s bombardment and invasion of Gaza has led to more than 34,000 deaths in the Palestinian territory, according to reporting from the Gaza Health Ministry. The war in Gaza was spurred by a Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7, which killed more than 1,000 Israelis and resulted in an estimated 240 hostages.

“I have yet to see any one institution act with the level of respect necessary to talk about the tens of thousands of lives lost” in the war, Quinn Allred, a Dartmouth sophomore from North Carolina, said on Thursday.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report. Frances Mize is a Report for America corps member. She can be reached at fmize@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.