Upwards of 200 people gathered at the top of the chapel hill on Friday, May 3 at 12 p.m. to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and for the administration to meet the Gaza Solidarity Encampment’s demands. The group marched down the hill chanting, “While Old Chapel stalls, bombs on Gaza fall,” and stopped at the back of Old Chapel, where chants continued, and students and alumni gave speeches.
At the march, members of the encampment announced that in a recent meeting, administrators made a verbal commitment to make a ceasefire statement and commit to a first step toward divestment. That first step would include financial transparency toward investments and codifying divestment from arms and arms manufacturing in all private and public investments.
Over 200 students gathered outside of Old Chapel on Friday, May 3 to call for the college administration to meet the Gaza Solidarity Encampment's demands.
“Because of our hard work, we’re making progress,” a speaker told the crowd. “We’re closer than we’ve ever been to divestment and aligning our values with the actions of the college. But our work isn’t done. We will continue to put pressure, to grow and fight for Palestinian liberation.”
According to protestors, the potential statement would meet two of the demands of the encampment, but not the other three: upholding the right to free expression, providing transparency on its partnership with the Israel Institute, and cultivating direct affiliations with Palestinian academic and cultural institutions without requiring them to partner with Israel counterparts. Students said they will continue camping out until all of their demands are met.
Varios student representatives from the encampment have met with four members of the Senior Leadership Group — Vice President for Student Affairs Smita Ruzicka, Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration David Provost, Vice President for Equity and Inclusion Khuram Hussain and Dean of Faculty Jim Ralph — three times this week, including on Friday morning.
“We continue to move toward a resolution, and have made significant progress toward a statement of shared values,” President Laurie Patton wrote in an email to the community at 4 p.m. on Friday, May 3. “We are encouraged by this progress. This work has been challenging and peaceful.”
“[The meetings] were productive, but we were eager to meet again, to make sure that they were substantive,” a student who has been present at meetings told The Campus. “Then we met with them again this morning, and made good progress this morning.”
The student explained that conversations with the administration have been productive, but they are eager to see the ceasefire and divestment statements to be released as quickly as possible.
“We have yet to see any of these things come to fruition. I will say we are really impressed with the administration has been honest with us so far, it seems,” the student said. “And there’s a lot of optimism heading into the next couple days.”
The student added that no major decisions are made among just the four negotiators talking to the administration. Rather, those negotiators return to the encampment to make decisions through a democratic process, though the student did not clarify what exactly that democratic process entails.
“They would be made in a way that reflects a democratic process, which we will clarify kind of given the decisions to be made,” the student said.
Students held up signs such as "River to the sea Palestine will be free" at the march.
Alongside the chanting and singing at the march on Friday afternoon, one student played the sousaphone and other students played the drums. Many students stomped and clapped along. At the beginning and end of the march, attendees sang a song that included the lines “Well, I went down to Old Chapel and I / took back what they stole from me / Took back my dignity.”
Organizers at the march handed out sheets of paper outlining the encampment’s five demands and distributed tulips and carnations from a local farm to attendees to represent solidarity, one student passing out flowers told The Campus. Protesters also put flowers in front of the doors to Old Chapel to represent lives lost in Gaza.
While the march had already been planned by members of the encampment as of Thursday, much of the content on Friday was in response to the administration’s verbal commitment. Josh Glucksman ’24.5, a spokesperson for the encampment, told The Campus he hoped that the content of the march would act as a final push toward administrative action.
At the march, those from the encampment encouraged people to join if they were able to commit at a high level. This request is a change from earlier this week, when those at the encampment encouraged people to get involved at any level. Glucksman told The Campus that there were no specific acts required, stating only that the protesters currently need higher levels of commitment due to how close they are to meeting their goals.
“For months, the college has ignored our demands. We’ve played into conflict transformation dinner and dialogue, where they draw attention away from tangible change, away from investments in Israel, away from the power dynamic between the colonizer and the colonized,” a speaker told the crowd, receiving cheers and drumming in response. “What was the result of working within the system? Nothing.”
The speaker cited the recent SGA resolution calling for divestment with a six page report and the alumni letter with over 549 signatures in October.
“Shame,” the crowd responded at various moments throughout student speeches, such as explicit references to Middlebury’s silence.
A student speaker also noted that over 34,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip, which is equal to the entire population of Addison County. The population of Addison County is 37,720, according to Census data from July 2023.
Two alumni spoke about the recent letter from alumni, which has 1,019 signatures as of Friday, May 3. One of them, who is also a staff member at the college, told The Campus that since they are still early in their career, they have the privilege of sacrificing getting fired for protesting.
“I think what’s most important for me right now is a free Palestine and ending genocide and this institution calling for a ceasefire,” the source said. “There is fear among staff and faculty of retaliation and retribution, so I respect that. By no means do I say they need to put their whole lives on the line. People have families, people have kids, people have careers that they’ve been working on.”
One of the most questioned demands from the encampment thus far has been about the Israel Institute. Gluckmsan said that a lot of people have thought that the encampment targeted the individual professor or the content of the courses, when in reality, their critique was institutional. He added that this stance was in line with Palestinian civil society, who have called for boycotts of entrenched Israel institutions of academia. Glucksman said the encampment clarified this demand in a workshop yesterday.
“We’re asking the college for transparency. We have a lot of the same questions you all do about why there’s a professor on campus getting externally funded, and who goes through a different vetting process than other professors on this campus,” Glucksman told The Campus. “Why is this professor not getting treated in the same way that every other professor gets treated, and in what ways is the Israel Institute in all likelihood, diminishing the amount of content about Palestine other teachers can teach.”
The Student Government Association (SGA) plans to meet with the students at the encampment on Friday and discuss how the SGA can best support the student protesters' needs. The SGA is also considering sending a referendum survey to the student body about the encampment's demands.
Glucksman concluded the march by empowering students to continue fighting until the college administration provides the commitment to financial transparency in writing, and meets the encampment’s five demands.
“We need you all to get connected. Protests become symbolic when we all break for lunch after this. And to that we say, ‘No. We stay put,’” Glucksman told the crowd.
Editors' Note: Managing Editor Ryan McElroy '25 and Local Editor Mandy Berghela '26 contributed reporting to this story.
Katie Futterman '24 (she/her) is a Managing Editor.
Katie previously served as a News Editor and Staff Writer. This past summer, she was a news intern at Seven Days, and she held the same position at the Addison Independent the prior summer. In her free time, she loves to read, write, and bask in the sun.
Maggie Reynolds '24 (she/her) is the Editor in Chief.
Maggie previously served as the Senior Local Editor, a Local Section Editor, and a Staff Writer. She spent this past J-term interning for VTDigger, covering topics from affordable housing in Addison County to town government scandals. She also interned for Seven Days VT as an arts & culture reporter summer 2022 and as a news reporter for the Daily Gazette in Schenectady, NY summer 2021.
Maggie is majoring in History and minoring in Political Science and Spanish. She was a three-year member of the Women's Swimming and Diving team. Maggie enjoys running, hiking, and iced maple lattes.
