[S]tudents holding Black Lives Matter signs blocked traffic during rush hour on the main artery into Burlington Thursday evening.
They stood on the crosswalk at the Davis Center, which is not far from the I-89 exits and serves as the primary roadway into the city. Traffic quickly backed up.
The students called for an end to racism on the University of Vermont campus and demanded that Tom Sullivan, the president of the college, meet with them.
Leaders of the group, No Names for Justice, said Sullivan had not addressed a list of 10 demands students made last fall to curb racism on campus.
“We started with 10 demands,” a student said, and there were still seven items on the list that had not yet been met by the administration. “We are not going home until he agrees to make it happen.”
In a video from the Burlington Free Press, the students urged the president to talk with them instead of sending emails. “Don’t dismiss what we say,” one student said. Another said Sullivan needed to take racism on campus seriously and “put the students first.”
The Burlington Police Department, which characterized the protest as “student civil disobedience” announced in a tweet that no one was arrested and the demonstrators cleared out a little after 5 p.m.
The students say the university has not made enough of an effort to change what they described as a culture of racism on campus. They have demanded the hiring of more black professors and administrators and have called for new diversity requirements and more diversity training for faculty.
It is the second time students have disrupted the UVM campus in six months. Last September 200 students marched to the UVM Waterman Building with a list of demands.
Enrique Corredera, the UVM executive director of news and public affairs, said that the student takeover of a major intersection in the city of Burlington impacted “the lives of thousands of individuals and families” and could have had “serious unintended consequences.”
“The University will remain focused on the work it is doing to advance its diversity and inclusion goals, and will continue to speak out against every form of racism, bigotry and injustice on our campus,” Corredera said in a statement.
Sullivan’s office is reaching out to the No Names for Justice group, which led the protest, to schedule a time for a meeting.
Corredera called for “mutual respect and civility, as well as adherence to the rule of law and University policies,” as the university confronts “difficult societal challenges.”
