College campuses around the country have been rocked by protests against Israel’s war on Hamas, which has claimed the lives of some 35,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in Gaza. Students have established tent encampments and are calling on their universities to divest from companies that support the Israeli occupation. Some universities have cracked down on protesters. Since encampments began at Columbia University on April 17, over 1,000 students have been arrested around the country, and numerous students have been suspended.

In Vermont, protesters have formed encampments at Middlebury College, University of Vermont and Sterling College. Both Middlebury and UVM students are demanding financial transparency and calling for their institutions to divest from Israel. 

Among their other demands, UVM students are calling for the cancellation of the commencement speaker, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Middlebury students are calling for their school to bring students and academics from Gaza, where many universities have been destroyed. In response to student demands, UVM leaders met with protesters and agreed to disclose its endowment investments and discuss the commencement speaker. 

Leaders of both institutions have so far permitted the protests, though students told me they worried about potential disciplinary consequences. Erica Caloiero, the vice provost for student affairs at UVM, told VTDigger that tents are a violation of university policy but that the school is working with students “to make sure that temporary structures exist in a way that is safe and allowable.”

Middlebury College released a statement saying, “As an educational institution, Middlebury values and encourages free expression and the peaceful exchange of ideas—including peaceful protest.”

On this Vermont Conversation, we hear voices from the student protest encampments at Middlebury and UVM. 

Middlebury senior Joshua Glucksman is due to graduate in a few weeks but said he can’t think about that. “Every single university [in Gaza] has been rendered dysfunctional by the ongoing Israel campaign of genocide,” he said. “There's no way that in my privilege as a student at Middlebury College, graduation is on my radar right now.” 

“It just is inconceivable considering the amount of damage and destruction being done right now in Gaza, especially in my name for the perceived idea of Jewish safety, that Israel is waging this genocidal campaign,” said Glucksman, who is Jewish.

“This has been the most powerful three days of my career at Middlebury College,” said senior Oliver Patrick. “I feel like I have grown as a person, as an organizer, as a leader, more than I have in my last three years here. But that can't take away from the very serious fact of why we're here, which is that last night, missiles killed children in Gaza. And our university is complicit with that. And I'm willing to perform whatever action or whatever role to help stop that.”

UVM senior Lillian Farah, who is from Massachusetts but is of Palestinian descent, was quietly writing with chalk in Arabic, “Free Palestine,” on the sidewalk in front of the UVM protest encampment. A large pole with surveillance cameras loomed overhead, which many students nervously pointed to. Farah said she was unafraid.

“Watching people be able to come together for something that they actually believe in, despite threats of suspension, threats of arrest, threats of trespassing citations, it's not enough to scare people away. And I think that that's a very real, very lasting impact of all of this that maybe some people are starting to understand,” she said.



“Maybe this is what people need to see that we're not going anywhere. And our voices aren't stopping, and they matter just as much as anybody else's.”