On Feb. 25 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., UVM Students for Justice in Palestine protested at UVM’s Spring Job and Internship Fair.
SJP called on students to abstain from networking with five companies slated to attend the fair, all of which manufacture technology used by the Israeli military, according to an SJP Instagram post.
Around 20 students and community members attended the rally, picketing outside the Davis Center’s third floor entrance.
They carried Palestinian flags and signs with messages such as “No killers @ UVM” and “Engineering students: you don’t have to work for RTX.”
Some organizers passed out pamphlets titled “Arms Off Campus” to passers-by.
Junior Joe Murphy, a member of SJP and one of the protest organizers, said that UVM allowing weapons manufacturing companies that work with the Israeli military at the job fair is unacceptable.
“This makes UVM complicit in the genocide in Gaza by hosting them here, and we’re going to show up and speak out whenever they keep bringing them to campus,” Murphy said.
Graduate student Ayana Curran-House, a member of the Palestine Solidarity Caucus through Graduate Students United, came to support SJP.
“It’s really disappointing that UVM continues to not listen to what students want and bring in employers that are setting them up for futures that contribute to so much injustice,” Curran-House said.
The companies protestors rallied against were General Dynamics, Agilent Technologies, Global Foundries, RTX Corporation and Marvell Technology.
All of these companies supply Israel with technology used for weaponry and surveillance, according to SJP.
Of the five companies advertised, only Agilent Technologies and Marvell Technologies were in attendance at Wednesday’s career fair.
SJP protested the same five companies’ involvement with UVM at the 2025 Fall Job and Internship Fair and the 2025 Engineering and Technology Fair.
Before the Fall Job and Career Fair, members of SJP said they met with staff at the UVM Career Center and the Director of Student Life, Lina Balcom.
Murphy said SJP feels they weren’t pointed toward staff who had enough power to make changes to the Job Fair company list.
“I think it’s a tactic of University administrations to send student protestors to figurehead level functionaries who don’t have any power and can’t make any decisions,” Murphy said. “We want to talk to the people who can make the policy changes.”
Senior and SJP organizer Sky Mandel passed out pamphlets inside the Davis Center to inform students about the companies’ participation in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
“We are trying to make the student body aware of who these companies really are, what they’re really doing and the fact that their university has allowed these murderers to take up space on campus,” Mandel said.
“The most important part is to put pressure on the administration to not have these companies here, and to divest from weapons manufacturing,” Mandel said.
Outside of the Davis Center, two UVM SJP members held a banner that read “UVM Students Demand Arms Off Campus.” Murphy spoke through a megaphone, listing the corporations’ connection to Israel and Gaza.
“All the violence we’re seeing in this country right now with ICE, and around the world, is only possible because we as people living in America have failed to stop the genocide in Gaza,” Murphy said.
Murphy said SJP’s message to the UVM community is clear.
“We all have a responsibility to stand up to our university hosting companies like this,” Murphy said. “We all have a responsibility not to work for these companies, and we all have a duty to fight back against the genocide in Gaza.”
