Signs defending white privilege appear around Burlington campuses

The University of Vermont and St. Michael's College are investigating white supremacist signs and stickers left on campus.

Signs reading “White Privelaged And Proud of It” and “Innocent Lives Matter Not Guilty Ones," were hung in UVM's Mosiac Center for Students of Color's display case last week, according to a Thursday email that students received from the university's bias response team. The email condemned the "hurtful and exclusionary messages."

St. Michael's College President Jack Neuhauser said Sunday in a statement that the Colchester college is investigating similar signs and stickers as a bias incident.

More:

UVM leaders condemn 'abhorrent' flyers found on MLK Day

'White supremacist' group not welcome in Burlington, mayor says

Burlington group shows up to counter rumored Patriot Front gathering

St. Michael's protesters: Administration must do more after hate incidents

UVM students push to meet with president on diversity policies

Melanie Castillo, a St. Michael's student, said she received text messages about the signs Sunday night and, with a group of about 15 students, went around campus documenting the flyers and taking them down. She said they collectively found about 20, including one that beseeched "men of the west" to not give into hate and "embrace white identity."

"It’s as if as we were taking them down, more were coming up," she said.

She added that they had called public safety and were able to report the stickers to a bias response team. Castillo, who was one of a group of students pushing the college's administration to better support students of color after racially loaded graffiti popped up on campus in December of 2016, said she was thankful to have the team, but she was still waiting for the team's response to her report.

Neuhauser said the college supports free speech, but will not tolerate hate speech, even when thinly veiled.

"Let us be clear: This was not done in some benign way to suggest equality for all is important," Neuhauser's statement said. "According to news reports, this began with a suggestion in an online chat space to seed social disruption and draw allies to white nationalist and alt-right causes."

Castillo said St. Michael's students were focused on supporting each other and making sure students, especially students of color, felt safe.

"It’s an attack on our physical presence on this campus," Castillo said about the stickers, which have popped up on college campuses nationally. "It was only a matter of time before they showed up on this campus."

People, she said, believe that such incidents don't happen in Vermont.

"But here it is," she said. "It's in our face."

The email from the University of Vermont's bias response team, which is led by Jilliene Johnson, Diversity, Engagement, and Professional Development director and includes representatives from the Mosaic Center and campus Police, said they were unable to determine who hung the signs on their campus. The signs, they said, were placed in violation of the school's posting policy and were removed.

"While the messages on the cards may seem benign to some, and do not constitute a University policy violation, numerous students, staff and faculty members have expressed tremendous hurt, frustration and concern with seeing these messages on the MCSC display case," the email said.

The team said they were planning to hold a gathering for students this week to help them process. On Facebook, a group describing themselves as "nameless UVM students pioneering the movement for Racial Justice," is calling for a rally Tuesday afternoon.

The stickers also appeared on Champlain College's campus, said Nyjah Elizabeth Ford, a student who said she noticed the posters and stickers over the weekend.

Katie Hawley, a spokeswoman for the college, said the flyers have been reported to campus public safety and the school alerted students Monday morning via email of the situation.

She said multiple flyers were found on the campus, and that the faculty is planning to discuss the signs during a meeting Monday afternoon.

She said that the the staff of the college, and higher education workers in general, have been aware that similar incidents have been part of the national landscape.

The Anti-Defamation League, an advocacy group that describes itself as fighting anti-Semitism and bigotry around the country, said they saw a surge of white supremacist flyers, stickers and posters appearing on college campuses in 44 states.

The advocacy group recorded 346 incidents between Sept. 1, 2016 and Jan. 29, 2018, with 15 recorded so far this year, and linked the flyers back to several groups such as "Identity Evropa" and the Patriot Front.

On Feb. 10, a large group of protesters gathered at South Burlington's Staples Plaza to counter a "flash demonstration" by the Patriot Front, a group Burlington's mayor described as white supremacist.

The Patriot Front demonstrators did not show at the shopping center, but a handful of masked individuals unfurled a banner in Burlington's City Hall Park later that day that read "Reclaim America."

Last week, Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo said that the demonstrators had not sought a permit, as required to hold a rally in City Hall Park. He added that police believed the demonstrators to be from out of state, due to reports of a Pennsylvania-tagged van.

The Burlington Police Department has "no dedicated apparatus" to tracking white supremacists, but does get reports from the FBI and the Vermont Intelligence Center about issues.

"There’s no specific intelligence that points to a white supremacist organization in the confines of the city," he said Monday. "If we get information that suggests there is, we will start paying attention."

Contributing: Reporter Nicole Higgins DeSmet.

Contact Jess Aloe at 802-660-1874 or jaloe@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @jess_aloe