In the public eye: Student protesters and campus leaders could gain “public figure” status

This article appears in the 2024 Freshman Special Issue.

On October 28, 2023, Kevin Engel (Class of ’27) woke up to nearly 600 text messages – responses to an email that college president Sian Leah Beilock had sent to Dartmouth students, parents, and alumni. In her message, Beilock informed the Dartmouth community that Engel and fellow pro-Palestinian activist Roan Wade (Class of ’25) arrested the previous evening because of a “threat of violence” against the college. The two were stored on the lawn in front of Parkhurst Hall to protest against the “withdrawal of the College’s funds from all organisations involved in apartheid and its apparatuses”, among other aims set out in the New deal from Dartmouth.

Publicly, the arrests of Engel and Wade – and Beilock’s email – sparked controversy on campus. Some student groups, including Sunrise Dartmouth – a climate activist group in which both Engel and Wade hold leadership positions – called a “Student March for Freedom” on October 30 in support of the couple. The Dartmouth Review, a conservative student newspaper, published an article titled “Bravo, President Beilock: Hanover Police Arrest Two Protesting Students” to recognize “the administration’s response” to Engel and Wade’s camp.

Engel and Wade are among thousands of people arrested this year for participating in pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses across the country. Some of these protesters’ activism has turned them into public figures with “limited purpose” or “edge” — someone who “pushes themselves to the forefront of certain public controversies to influence the resolution of the issues at hand” and “attract attention and comment,” according to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. In other words, their activism has turned some student protesters from private citizens into public figures who are subjects of public interest, according to John Watson, a journalism professor at American University.

“The (Supreme Court) has said that a public figure is a person whose name is on everyone’s lips,” explained Watson, who studied at Rutgers School of Law. “The decision … very often depends on the media outlet that is accused of libel or slander.”

Who is considered a public figure can also depend on scale. For example, if a national newspaper were to defame one of Dartmouth’s student-athletes, that player would likely be considered a private citizen rather than a public figure, according to Watson. He explained that “in the household that the courts would consider in the context of a national newspaper,” the player’s name would likely not be a household name. However, if a Dartmouth campus publication were to defame a college athlete, the player would be a public figure “in the household of the small Dartmouth campus,” he said.

In contrast, the top five players on Duke University’s basketball team would “likely” be public figures even if they were vilified on a national level because of the team’s huge popularity, Watson said.

Beilock’s email not only sparked a debate for Engel and Wade over issues of campus safety and freedom of expression: It also led to threats of violence and hatred against the couple and outed Wade as nonbinary to her family, Engel claimed.

“(Beilock’s email) put me and Roan in contact with far-right media outlets who wrote articles calling us terrorists, and the comments were full of people insulting us,” he said. “(Wade’s) family then learned of her name change.”

Wade claimed before a Dartmouth Student Government Senate meet in May that she had received emails copied to Beilock and her attorney that contained the words “mass shooting.”

When asked for comment on Engel’s claims, college spokeswoman Jana Barnello referred to Beilock’s message to the public on October 28.

“Dartmouth deeply values ​​and always defends the right to free speech, including the right to protest and demonstrate, in accordance with our established policies,” Beilock wrote in the message. “These policies are designed to protect the right of all members of our community to express their views while protecting our academic mission and the safety of everyone on campus.”

Engel said he considered filing a defamation suit against the college because Beilock’s email was “inappropriate,” but he “felt he did not have the resources to weigh in on the matter.”

Should Engel file a defamation suit, he could also face additional legal hurdles because of his involvement in campus protests. In court, a public figure must prove “actual malice” to win, while private citizens only need to prove that the defamatory statement “was made at least inadvertently,” Watson said.

Students who sued newspapers that had shown their faces at pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been “consistently” classified by courts as “vortex personalities,” Watson explained. As a result, their photos can be used in the limited context of protest coverage. And exposure in public media can have significant consequences for some protesters. According to the New York Times, in October the New York law firm Davis Polk withdrew job offers made to three students at Harvard University and Columbia University who were associated with Palestinian solidarity groups.

To protect their members who do not want to be in the public eye, activist groups have made media training a “common practice” for years – from student-led groups at Dartmouth to national organizations, Engel said. But the number of organizations using such tactics has increased recently, Engel said. The Palestine Solidarity Coalition at Dartmouth, an organization of pro-Palestinian students and groups, “sometimes” appoints members to serve as press spokespeople for a protest or event, he explained. The organization has also “hired someone who used to work in the local media” to provide training on how to “use the media effectively to get your story out,” he added.

While trained activists often have access to institutional knowledge, such as open-source resource packs created by national organizations, to avoid inadvertently becoming a public figure with a limited purpose, this is not the case for many newer members or non-activists. One member of the Class of 2025, who requested anonymity to speak openly about his experiences, said he was uncomfortable seeing his name published in connection with the 89 people who arrested on the Green during a pro-Palestinian demonstration on May 1. He explained that he was arrested as a passerby with no intention of protesting.

“If I continue to speak out publicly, my name will only be at the top of the Google search results page as a student who was arrested,” he said. “If (an arrested student) is searched for online by a prospective employer (or) his fellow students … (their) perception of him is beyond their control.”

Although he no longer wanted to be publicly associated with the arrests, the student said he still believes it is important for people to understand the potential “consequences of a college that does not always take care of its students.” The student said his arrest jeopardized his full scholarship, which he would have had to pay back in full if convicted. Ultimately, the prosecutor said decided not to pursue his allegations any further.

“The massive intervention of the police in the peaceful protests – at least they did not intervene physically – put students in danger who were not there for that reason and who were subsequently grouped together into a large group by the administration,” he said.

Student protesters are not the only public figures or figures with limited responsibilities on college campuses, Watson said. Others who may be considered public figures include members of elected student governments and the editor-in-chief of a student newspaper.

Student Council President Chukwuka Odigbo (graduating class of ’25) wrote in an email to The Dartmouth that representing student interests is his “primary concern” and that this will not be affected by the possibility that he will likely be a public figure.

“My engagement as student body president remains student-centered and student-led,” he added. “In previous interactions with the media as a senator and chair of a DSG committee, I worked to share information that I knew to be accurate. That approach will not change.”