UVM Students for Justice in Palestine has announced a campaign calling to remove four employers from the upcoming career fair being hosted by UVM on Oct. 8.
Over 90 organizations are attending, according to an Oct. 1 email from the Career Center advertising the Career Fair.
SJP seeks to remove GlobalFoundries, Marvell Technology, RTX Corporation and the FBI, due to their affiliations with the Israel Defense Forces and the U.S. Department of War, according to senior Joe Murphy, an SJP leadership board member.
“We want to make it very clear to the administration that if these companies do come to campus, there will be protests, and it almost certainly will not just be SJP,” Murphy said. “We think that this is something that most students, if not all students, will be against and will be angry about.”
As part of the campaign, called “Arms off Campus,” SJP will hold a protest at the Career Fair, according to an Oct. 3 post from the SJP Instagram account.
“We invite all students, staff, faculty, and community members to join us in demanding the removal of genocidal companies from campus through all possible avenues,” the post stated.
SJP has also distributed posters on campus encouraging students to boycott these companies.
One poster features a cartoon of a UVM graduate refusing to work for RTX. The posters are labeled “Arms off Campus.”
SJP met with SGA leadership regarding contacting University President Marlene Tromp, but has not been able to connect with her directly. They plan to meet with Career Center Director Sarah Heath, Murphy said.
The Career Center welcomes any employer as long as they offer legitimate employment or learning opportunities and abide by both UVM Recruiting Guidelines and the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ Principles for ethical professional practice, Heath stated in a Sept. 26 email to the Cynic.
SJP met with the University administration to remove the companies but were unsuccessful, they stated in an Oct. 3 Instagram post.
“Today, we met with the UVM administration to request the removal of these companies from the October 8th and November 6th career fairs. They refused,” the Instagram post stated.
In the past, SJP has been successful in lobbying the administration.
In 2024, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was scheduled to speak at Commencement. The University later cancelled her engagement due to protests from students, according to SJP Secretary senior Willem Cornish.
The University did not give a reason for the cancellation of Thomas-Greenfield’s speech.
“It is with regret that I share that our planned speaker, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, will not be joining us to deliver the Commencement address,” stated former University President Suresh Garimella in a May 3, 2024 press release.
Murphy did express hope that Tromp will approach her presidency with an open mind for student activists.
“We’re hoping to just kind of serve as a vessel for campus to be aware of this,” Murphy said. “We’ve been told that she is likely to be more receptive to student outcry like this than previous administrations have been.”
