In an Op-Ed in the September 24, 2025, Liam Carey ’27 defended raising “the Palestinian flag on the morning of commencement — June 8 — [as] an act of peaceful protest.” He did so to protest Israeli policies in its war with Hamas in Gaza and, he claimed, in conformity with the College’s Protest Policy that “recognizes and affirms that freedom of expression, academic freedom, and intellectual inquiry and debate are vital to its academic mission”.

Nearly three years ago, a group of concerned alumni, faculty, and students organized to form the Williams Free Speech Alliance because we believed those values were under threat. We support Mr. Carey’s right to protest.

His actions on commencement morning last year ran afoul of the second paragraph of that policy:

At the same time, Williams retains the right to regulate the time, place, and manner of protests and will not permit protests that threaten safety, suppress others’ right to speech or equal access to the campus, involve harassment, or obstruct the college’s operations.

His actions last spring clearly obstructed the college’s operations. In his Op-Ed, Mr. Carey omitted a number of details surrounding his action – and his arrest. He did not just raise the Palestinian flag. He pulled down the College’s American flag–and obstructed the college’s efforts to replace it on the day of graduation.

As the Record reported, he also tied “himself to the flagpole in front of Chapin Hall” and wrote “pro-Palestine graffiti on Sawyer Quad”. College staff attempted to negotiate with him, giving him “the opportunity to step away from the pole multiple times prior to his arrest,” but he refused to do so.

Given his actions, the college showed remarkable leniency.

A great variety of alternative means of expression were available to him. Mr. Carey could, for example, on commencement morning have stood in front of Chapin Hall and waved a Palestinian flag. Had he done that and the college treated him as it did, we might disagree with his actions, but would take issue with the college, even reaching out to lawyers in our network to defend him. That form of protest would not have obstructed the college’s operation nor run afoul of the college’s protest policies.

There is a difference, however, between waving one’s own flag and replacing the flag that the college has raised in accordance with its longstanding policy. Flying the American flag has been part of college operations for as long as even the oldest among us has been part of the Williams community.

Free speech would have allowed him to destroy his own flag. It becomes vandalism when he tampers with the flag belonging to another.

If the college were to allow him to raise the Palestinian flag on the college flagpole at commencement, then it must also allow any student with a political concern to raise the flag of their choice at their whim.

We are concerned that the lax nature of the punishment has emboldened the individuals who cut the cord on the American flag last fall. Had he been more severely punished, they would have understood that there are consequences to vandalizing the flag.

Far from being “hypocritical” in the way “the College treats dissent” to Israeli policies, the College was applying an even-handed policy on protest. By the same token, had a Zionist student raised the Israeli flag and tied themself to very same flagpole to protest the paucity of pro-Israel programming at Williams, the administration should have acted exactly as it did last spring.

It wouldn’t have been suppressing the student’s right to dissent, but instead protecting college property from vandalism.

That Mr. Carey does not show any remorse for his actions nor offer an understanding of the college’s protest policies and their purposes suggests that, in this case, the college’s disciplinary policy has failed.

These policies exist not just to protect Mr. Carey’s right to dissent, but also that of the hypothetical Zionist student. Or any student.

When disciplining students, Williams College needs to be clearer in explaining its protest policies – and their purposes.