BURLINGTON — Pro-Palestinian protesters pitched encampments at the University of Vermont and Middlebury College on Sunday, joining a surge of student activism at institutions of higher learning across the country. 

By Sunday afternoon, roughly a dozen tents had sprung up on the University of Vermont’s Andrew Harris Commons in Burlington. Earlier that day, Middlebury students set up close to 40 tents on the college’s McCullough Lawn. The encampments appear to be the first to materialize on Vermont college campuses. 

In recent weeks, protests have swept across American universities and colleges, amid growing outcry over Israel’s conduct in its war against Hamas. The movement has been further galvanized by the arrests of hundreds of student protesters at campuses around the country.

At the University of Vermont, amid an intermittent rain, roughly 120 people gathered Sunday afternoon to the sound of speeches and music. Attendees toted signs and wore traditional Palestinian keffiyehs, and tents were draped with Palestinian flags. At one point in the evening, students held a Passover Seder, complete with recitation of Jewish text and prayers. 

Students for Justice in Palestine, the campus activist group that spearheaded Sunday’s protest, released a list of five demands for university administrators ahead of time. 

The group called on university leaders to reveal the details of financial investments made through its roughly $840 million endowment and divest funds from “all weapons manufacturers, Israeli companies, and companies involved in the occupation of historic Palestine.”

Activists demanded that the university institute a boycott of Israel’s academic institutions and offer “amnesty for all students engaged in protests for Palestinian freedom, and a guarantee of no charges for protestors.”

And protesters called on UVM to cancel this year’s commencement speaker, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Protesters see her as complicit in the three U.S. vetoes of ceasefire resolutions at the United Nations. 

“We’re part of a big, broad student movement striking at this critical moment to demand that our universities divest from genocide,” a member of Students for Justice in Palestine, who gave his name as James, said in an interview. 

“I think we have the students behind us,” James said. “We have the capability to hold the encampment and stay here, I think, as long as we need to until our demands are met.”

Many students at the protest declined to give their names for fear of reprisal. 

“At this point, it’s abundantly obvious that Israel is causing the majority of the pain. They have the majority of the power,” said one student, who agreed to be identified by his middle name, Louis. “It’s very evident who the oppressor is here.”

Louis noted that he was Jewish. 

“I can’t do nothing anymore. We can sit here and do nothing,” said another protester, who offered her middle name, Jennifer. “So if the least I can do is be here, stand here and just show someone that I care about them, that’s what I’m gonna do.”

Throughout the protest, several university police officers watched from a distance. At one point, several university administrators, including provost and senior vice president Patty Prelock and chief safety and compliance officer Michael Schirling, could be seen engaged in a conversation with students. They declined an interview on the scene.

Adam White, a university spokesperson, said in an emailed statement that administrators “had conversations with participants, informed them about policy violations and safety concerns related to the encampment, and requested its removal.”

White did not say whether university officials would take any action in response to the encampment. 

“UVM values free expression as an essential component of higher education and civic life,” White said. “Students, faculty and staff are encouraged to speak up and speak out, as long as they do so within the law and university policy, which places clear and reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions on all campus activities.”

Middlebury encampment

At 8 a.m. on Sunday, pro-Palestinian students began erecting tents at Middlebury’s McCullough Lawn, where the college’s commencement typically takes place. 

Beck Orten, a first-year student and spokesperson for the encampment, said protesters planned to remain “as long as we need to.”

“We anticipate potentially going into graduation, which is something we factored into the location,” she said. “We plan to be here until the administration at least has a conversation about our demands and meets them to some extent.”

Throughout the day, roughly 100 protesters gathered and took part in student-led discussions and activities, including talks on de-escalation tactics. Orten said that participants planned to host three to four events per day after classes “so that the whole campus can be involved if they want to be.” 

By midafternoon Sunday, participants had set up close to 40 tents. 

There was no immediate interaction between protesters and police — and only limited discussions between participants and the school’s Department of Public Safety, according to sophomore Talia Grigg, the encampment’s public safety liaison. 

“The main thing that public safety is concerned about is that we don’t block pathways or antagonize or escalate interactions with community members or other students and that it remains a peaceful and safe demonstration, which is what we all want,” Grigg said.

In a statement provided by Middlebury spokesperson Jon Reidel, the college said it “values and encourages the peaceful exchange of ideas.”

“Our primary goal is to support free expression and peaceful protest in a way that keeps our community safe, and we continue to monitor the situation,” the statement read. “Right now, the students are peaceful and complying with protest policies and our focus is on dialogue and our educational mission.”

In a press release issued Sunday, Middlebury protesters outlined five demands, many of which echo those made by their counterparts at UVM and other college campuses. 

They include divesting the college’s endowment of holdings associated with Israel; committing to free expression and extending amnesty to those who engage in protest; ending associations with Israeli institutions; cultivating affiliations with Palestinian institutions; and calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. 

Some students have committed to missing classes, and some professors have decided to provide participating students the option to join class remotely. 

Students have pledged varying levels of commitment, which they described as “zones.” According to sophomore Athena Antippas and junior Victoria Shuster, green zone students will participate in daytime activities, yellow zone students will stay unless asked to disperse, and red zone students have committed to essentially live at the encampment. 

“And that also means that if we are asked to disperse if police are to come, I am willing to risk academic sanction and arrest,” Shuster said of their red zone status.

Schuster called the college “complicit” in the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, adding, “I do not wish to be participating in this school, while we are complicit in that, and so I am willing to risk everything when it comes to my education, because I’m alive right now, and I’m able to get the food and supplies that I need to live out here, while everyone in Gaza has no certainty for that.”

Antippas has also pledged to be in the red zone. 

“I know what the right thing to do is. I can’t pass that opportunity up,” she said. “I just want to stand up for what I believe in and be proud of the work that I do here.”