[B]URLINGTON — Students pledged to escalate protests over racism at the University of Vermont on Friday after school administrators and Burlington police spent the day scrambling to restore calm and regain control over the situation.
The city’s police department released the results of its investigation into the white supremacist signs posted on campus that sparked the protests, while also issuing a tentative warning in response to students blocking a main road on Thursday.
Police said they had identified those responsible for the signs as an out-of-state group and a Vermonter from elsewhere in the state, but declined to name them or take legal action because their acts were not criminal.
“It does appear, however, that these individuals intended to cause strife, disruption and mistrust on local college campuses by expressing hostile and troubling messages in their public places,” the statement said, explaining that their actions did not merit immediate legal action.
“Regardless, since violence can go hand in hand with racial extremism, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and local partners will continue to monitor the group’s actions,” according to the release.
UVM President Tom Sullivan, who had been responding to the situation through emails and official statements, borrowed a megaphone from protesters on Friday morning and made a sympathetic call for patience from students who were staging a sit-in outside his office.
“I know the urgency with which you feel and understand these issues. I feel that same urgency. And I sometimes have that same frustration as to why things take so long in our university communities,” Sullivan said.
NoNames for Justice, the group leading the protests, said they wanted more from Sullivan, whose resignation has been among their demands. Harmony Edosomwan, UVM’s Black Student Union president, demanded the president’s pledge to rename the Bailey/Howe library, which the activists say has ties to Vermont’s eugenics movement.
“We want you to rename Bailey/Howe. That’s the main thing we want you to focus on,” Edosomwan said.
UVM board of trustees chair David Daigle implored Edosomwan and the rest of the group to have faith in a process that could lead to the building’s renaming. Shortly after arriving, Daigle and Sullivan went into the executive offices, which were guarded by UVM police.
Protesters then gave Sullivan an ultimatum, delivered via megaphone.
“We are giving them until 2:30 or this will escalate,” Edosomwan said. She then read aloud what they believed to be Sullivan’s phone number, and instructed the crowd to place a mass-call. Several people in the crowd said their calls went straight to voicemail.
When 2:30 came around and Sullivan did not appear, Edosomwan announced a planning meeting over the weekend and vowed further action.
This week’s protests and acts of civil disobedience began in response small signs with slogans like “innocent lives matter, not guilty ones,” and “white privelaged [sic] and proud of it” that were taped last Thursday to a display case in the student center containing information about the Mosaic Center for Students of Color.
The students are demanding diversity and inclusion training, more faculty of color and LGBTQA faculty, renovated diversity courses, mandatory training for Greek life, more funding for diversity and the renaming of some campus buildings.
After the protest subsided on Friday, Burlington Police issued a news release on the findings from their investigation into the white supremacist messages, which were also posted at nearby Champlain College.
It said the FBI and local police have “conclusively” identified some of the people who posted them.
“Although some persons involved remain unidentified, there is no evidence to suggest UVM or Champlain students were a part of the group, or facilitated its work,” it said, adding that there was “evidence that these individuals have participated in extremist group activities in other communities.”
Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo said in the statement that his department is coordinating with federal law enforcement to keep the community safe.
“We will continue to diligently monitor the situation and encourage community members to keep in mind the intent of an outside party to exacerbate tensions in our City,” del Pozo said.
The investigation referenced in the release did not appear to address previous racially-charged postings at UVM or elsewhere.
Last November, Signs that read “It’s ok to be white,” appeared on campus, and in January posters that depicted people of color who are also suspects in local criminal cases read “Stop importing problems, start importing solutions.”
In a separate news release sent earlier Friday, del Pozo said that Thursday’s protest on Main Street was illegal, but explained that police did not intervene out of consideration for the political, social and constitutional issues related to removing or arresting protesters.
“Exercising that power to remove protesters can be seen as the state using force to stifle political speech under the color of enforcing what is otherwise a minor violation of the law,” del Pozo wrote.
However, del Pozo said that should protests disrupting traffic become more common, police may have to weigh “more heavily” the rights of motorists against the rights of protesters.
Protesters have been galvanized by John Mejia, the assistant director of off-campus services at UVM’s office of student and community relations. Mejia started a hunger strike Friday with a similar list of demands to the students, but said the university’s leadership appeared unmoved.
Mejia called off the hunger strike on Friday, its seventh day, explaining in a statement that “it is clear that this administration is more than happy to let me die.”
“At this point I am merely harming the community I love, who are distraught that I am damaging my health in an effort to bring forth the humanity and empathy of our supposed leaders — who have neither,” Mejia said, vowing to continue supporting the protesters.
University spokesman Enrique Corredera wrote in a news release Friday medical staff had continued to try and make contact with Mejia throughout the strike, and were glad its over.
In response to calls for the resignation of Sullivan, UVM Provost David Rosowsky and Vice Provost for Student Affairs Annie Stevens, university groups including the Board of Trustees, Faculty Senate and University Deans have issued statements reaffirming support for the officials.
“We are undeterred in our resolve to fight racism and bigotry, and to advance our diversity, inclusion and racial justice goals,” Corredera wrote on Friday.
