Two years ago, in that fraught academic year 2023, President Maud S. Mandel showed great leadership, at least rhetorically, on issues of concern to the free speech community. She adopted a policy of institutional neutrality for her office and defended the right of anti-Israel protestors to set up an encampment on Stetson Lawn, provided they “do so within the broad guardrails of the Williams Code of Conduct.”

When students disrupted “the final program in a three-part series on the war in Gaza and the international context”, she labeled it a “serious transgression,” contending that

the “heckler’s veto,” strikes at the heart of the academic project; it is, therefore, a significant violation of our principles.

I deeply regret that students opted to engage in disruptive behavior last night, and the matter will be referred to the College’s standard disciplinary process.

But that process seemed more pro forma than punitive.

Students and alumni from the class of ’24 who were present at the event told us that one of the students who disrupted the program was honored at commencement. We have seen no evidence that the disrupting students faced any consequences for their serious transgression. Alumni have reached out to us asking how the disruptive students were disciplined—if at all.

One speculated that the failure of the college to publicize the punishment emboldened those who vandalized a table display celebrating Jewish and Israel heritage as well as those who vandalized other college property.

No wonder Liam Carey ‘27 thought he could get away with pulling down the American flag and raising the Palestinian flag in his place on Commencement Day last spring, a slap on the wrist, given the magnitude of his wrongdoing. He was banned from campus for the summer, but in an Op-Ed in The Record showed no remorse for his actions.

When the college tried to negotiate with him, he tied himself to the flagpole. In the end, the college had to call the police to pull him away and restore the flag to its proper place.

With Mr. Carey back on campus last fall, a group of students felt emboldened to cut the cord on the flagpole when the flag was flying at half-mast in accordance with a directive from President Trump and Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey following the death of the conservative youth leader Charlie Kirk.

The college did not again raise the American flag again until Monday, September 15, after the presidential and gubernatorial directives had expired.

We have yet to learn how the students who cut the cord were punished – if at all.

One wonders why the college is so hesitant to discipline these very clear infractions of college policy.