Last month, pro-Palestine students held a silent “study-in” at the Widener Library. As a result, they were banned from the library for two weeks.

The Harvard Crimson reported that on Oct. 16, “faculty protesters wore black scarves and read texts on dissent, bureaucracy, and censorship — from Franz Kafka’s The Trial and George Orwell’s 1984 to the University-Wide Statement on Rights and Responsibilities, which Harvard officials have used to justify imposing sanctions on activists who violate protest guidelines.”

Ahead of the Oct. 16 protest, faculty members penned a letter to Martha J. Whitehead, the vice president of Harvard Library, and Harvard professor Ann M. Blair, who leads the faculty advisory council for the library system.

“We would appreciate knowing if you intend to revoke our access to the scholarly resources we need to do our jobs (teaching, research, writing) based on our decision to read in the library,” the note read in part.

External safety officers from Securitas were hired to be on-site during the protest. The guards collected the names and ID numbers of each professor and student who entered the library during the silent “study-in.” They also received sheets warning them of the possible repercussions their actions may have.

“Libraries are not spaces available for demonstrations or protests,” the papers read. “Violation of these rules may result in possible revocation of library privileges and/or disciplinary action.”

Jason A. Newton, a representative for Harvard, issued a statement in which he said that Harvard and the library system “will continue to gather information about the action that took place in Widener Library’s Loker Reading Room today before determining next steps.”

Andrew M. Crespo, a Harvard Law School professor who participated in Wednesday’s protest, questioned what was wrong with a silent protest in a library where silence is golden.

“I think that a university has every interest in making sure that its libraries are quiet places, that they are places where people can study, that they’re not disrupted,” he told The Crimson. “But I don’t think that you can describe sitting quietly at a table reading a book as disruptive in a library.”