BURLINGTON — University of Vermont is facing pushback from state lawmakers and city councilors as it initiates disciplinary proceedings against pro-Palestinian student protesters. 

Late last week, university police began ID’ing students at an encampment that was erected on campus eight days ago, and issuing them notices that they were violating university policy. 

Individual hearings are set to begin this week, students told VTDigger on Monday.

Adam White, a spokesperson for the university, said that a formal disciplinary process for several students began last Friday “only after numerous warnings were issued to students throughout the week.”

“Initiation of the process is ongoing and each student will receive a fair process before final sanctions are determined,” he said.

On the heels of the university’s decision, 20 state lawmakers and the lieutenant governor signed a letter Monday urging UVM leaders “to respect the right to assembly, free speech, and protest of the student protesters” and “not to engage in any police actions or disciplinary measures with peaceful protesters calling for action.”

“Our hope is that you continue to consider the student’s remaining requests and, to state it again, will commit to not taking any disciplinary action against students who remain peaceful with their protest regardless of the fact that they are doing so from tents on the public green,” reads the letter, signed by state Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky, P/D-Chittenden, Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, and 19 House representatives.

Five Progressive councilors on the Burlington City Council also issued a letter of solidarity in support of the UVM student encampment Sunday.

“We ask you to not penalize them or escalate the situation by using the police, threats of sanctions or discipline, or other forms of intimidation to dismantle the protest and stifle their exercise of free speech,” their letter reads. “Instead, we call on you to consider their ‘demands/requests’ seriously and the context in which they raise them, the genocidal war they are trying to stop.”

Students in the encampment have characterized the disciplinary proceedings as an escalation by the university, and on Monday they held a rally on campus, reiterating calls for amnesty for all student protestors.

While campus police have made the rounds at the encampment in the past couple days, students say officers have only stopped to check IDs two or three times.

Multiple groups — including a group of 60 university faculty and staff members — have called on UVM to refrain from using police to escalate the situation.

Wafic Faour, an organizer with the Vermont Vermont Coalition for Palestinian Liberation, spoke at the encampment Monday, telling students that “amnesty for people who are just practicing the First Amendment shouldn’t be in question.”

Now in its eighth day, the encampment has grown to roughly 90 tents. Many students at the encampment have spoken with VTDigger but have declined to provide their names, citing a fear of reprisal from the university or police.

Students have demanded the university divest from “all weapons manufacturers, Israeli companies, and companies involved in the occupation of historic Palestine.”

In an apparent victory for the protesters, UVM President Suresh Garimella on Friday announced Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, would no longer speak at the University of Vermont’s commencement ceremony.

Administrators also released information about how its roughly $840 million endowment was invested, another demand made by protesters.

Ashley Smith, another organizer with the Vermont Coalition for Palestinian Liberation, told students at the rally Monday, “You should be proud today — you’re upholding the most noble tradition of struggle from below for justice, not only in this country but throughout the world.”

Earlier on Monday, students at Middlebury College took down their encampment, which sprung up on the same day as UVM’s, after striking an agreement with the school administration.