U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who drew the ire of pro-Palestine activists, will not speak as planned at the University of Vermont's commencement this month.

University president Suresh Garimella delivered the news in a campus-wide email late Friday that offered no explanation for the change. He did write, however, that graduating students deserve to be able to celebrate their achievements.

It was part of a message discussing the administration's response to a pro-Palestine encampment set up on Sunday on a campus green to demand, among other things, that the school cancel Thomas-Greenfield's keynote address. In February, Thomas-Greenfield cast the U.S. vote that vetoed a U.N. resolution calling for a humanitarian pause to Israel’s attacks in the Gaza Strip.



Garimella also indicated that the school was initiating discipline of students involved in the encampment, saying it is in violation of school policies.
UVM spokesperson Adam White didn’t immediately respond to an interview request. UVM Students for Justice in Palestine, one of the student groups organizing the encampment, posted a message on Instagram Friday evening heralding the decision as a victory.

“When we fight, we win,” the post says.

More than 50 tents have popped up at Andrew Harris Commons since Sunday night. Protesters have held rallies and vigils this week. Similar demonstrations have been happening at Middlebury College. To date, no arrests have been reported at Vermont demonstrations, though about 90 people were charged at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire on Wednesday night.

The scene at UVM was quiet on Friday afternoon. Students worked on laptops, read books and dozed in the sun. On Saturday night, demonstrators plan to host a screening of Israelism, a 2023 documentary that explores the complicated relationship some American Jews have with Israel. One of the filmmakers, Sam Eilertsen, planned to attend the showing and take questions afterward, according to the UVM Students for Justice in Palestine.

UVM administrators had notified students earlier this week that they were violating several university policies and could face increasing sanctions, including fines, if the encampment at Andrews Harris Commons remained in place.

In his message on Friday, Garimella did not say how many students might face disciplinary action.

In October, just two weeks after the attacks on Israel by Hamas, UVM canceled a lecture by Mohammed El-Kurd, a Palestinian poet and correspondent for the Nation who was scheduled to speak at the Davis Center, citing safety concerns. Emails later obtained by Seven Days through the open records law revealed no threats had been made and that the decision led professors to worry that UVM was stifling speech over contested issues.