Letter to the uvm administration: solidarity with the uvm palestine encampment

May 4, 2024

To: Suresh Garimella, President of University of Vermont
CC: Patricia Prelock, UVM Provost; UVM Board of Trustees

Dear President Garimella:

We, the members of Burlington’s Progressive City Council Caucus, write this letter of solidarity in support of UVM students’ encampment in support of Palestinians. We ask you to not penalize them or escalate the situation by using the police, threats of sanctions or discipline, or other forms of intimidation to dismantle the protest and stifle their exercise of free speech. Instead, we call on you to consider their “demands/requests” seriously and the context in which they raisethem, the genocidal war they are trying to stop. In this call, we stand with the almost 60 members of the UVM faculty who has sent a similar letter to you.

These students are and have been engaged in the peaceful exercise of free speech. They have educated themselves, other students, and members of the public. They have not engaged in acts of violence. They have not destroyed property. They have not blocked the paths or sidewalks; no students, faculty, staff, or the public are impeded in going to and from buildings and other locations on campus.

These students are part of a global movement to end this horrific war being waged against the Palestinian people. Their protest is part of a long and noble tradition. They’ve been told they are violating UVM policies in this exercise of free speech. In 1965, marchers in Selma were toldthey were violating laws when trying to cross the Edmund Pettis Bridge in their exercise of their first amendment rights in their struggle for justice. Gandhi’s march to the sea violated colonial law. Your students, in their exercise of free speech and protest, have joined this pantheon of heroes in past movements against war and injustice. They are part of the long history of UVM students pushing the boundaries of free speech on the essential questions of their days: Kate Walk and racism, Vietnam, South Africa’s Apartheid, Racial Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

The verdict of history shows they were right. In this spirit, we again ask you to not penalize them or escalate the situation by using the police, threats of sanctions or discipline, or other forms of intimidation to dismantle the protest and stifle their exercise of free speech but instead call on you to consider and engage with them over their “demands/requests” seriously in the context they are raised. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Carter Neubieser, Ward 1 City Councilor

​Gene Bergman, Ward 2 City Councilor

Joe Kane, Ward 3 City Councilor

​​Marek Broderick, Ward 8 City Councilor

Melo Grant, Central District Councilor