Protesters shouted Murray down and continued to disrupt his March visit after his lecture was moved to another location on campus to be livestreamed. Some protesters, who college officials said they believe to be outside agitators, injured professor Allison Stanger as she tried to escort Murray to a car after his talk.
In a statement, Chief Thomas Handley agreed that several people involved in the confrontation with Stanger and Murray were not Middlebury students.
“A number of individuals who were in this crowd of more than 20 people outside the event venue were identified, many of whom were not members of the college community,” Handley said.
After consulting the Addison County state’s attorney, Handley said, authorities determined there was not enough information to bring charges against any of the people they identified. Police were not able to identify whoever injured Stanger, they said.
Handley said the investigation into the protests that took place inside Middlebury campus buildings is being handled by the college.
Middlebury College has completed its investigation and the resulting student discipline process for those involved in the Murray protest, according to a news release from the school. A total of 67 students were disciplined. College officials said those who were disciplined violated either the school’s policies for demonstrations and protests or its policy for respecting people.
The sanctions range from probation to official discipline, which places a permanent record in the student’s file. Some graduate schools and employers require people to disclose official college discipline in their applications, according to the news release.
Officials said they divided the protest into three stages, with more serious consequences for those involved in the second and third stages. The first stage was when students shouted Murray down; the second was when some tried to disrupt the livestream; and the third was the confrontation as Murray was escorted off campus.
A total of 41 students were identified as being involved in the first stage, while 26 were identified as being involved in the second or third stage, according to school officials.
The 26 students involved in the later stages had their disciplinary measures determined during group and individual hearings before the college’s Community Judicial Board, made up of students, faculty and staff.
Middlebury College says federal law prohibits it from sharing information about the sanctions on individual students.
Student protesters said they chose to disrupt the event because Murray, who is labeled a white nationalist by the Southern Poverty Law Center, had refused to engage with students who disagreed with his views during a previous visit in 2007.
Murray is best known for the 1994 book “The Bell Curve,” in which he and a co-author wrote about racial differences in intelligence. His newer book, “Coming Apart,” is about class division in the United States.
Earlier this month, several students said they felt the national media coverage ignored the campus-specific context of the Murray protests, instead opting for a convenient narrative of angry students trampling a controversial speaker’s right to free speech. The students said they felt the discipline process was driven in part by the negative coverage.
Tensions over racial and social justice issues on campus were simmering long before Murray arrived. Muslim students found their doors defaced in the wake of President Donald Trump’s executive order banning travel to the U.S. by citizens of several Muslim-majority countries, and similar incidents had left many on edge, they said.
