A protester walks by a sign posted outside the Auraria encampment on the sixth day of the protest. April 30, 2024. (Henry Larson/CU Independent)
As of Thursday, April 30, the pro-Palestinian encampment on the Auraria and University of Colorado Denver campus has ballooned in size.
The camp now has triple the amount of tents that were in place before police arrested 40 people at the encampment on Friday, as well as new sunshades and a pair of portable toilets.
Dozens of students from the University of Denver joined the encampment shortly after noon on Tuesday, as organizers from CU Denver and Metropolitan State University met with senior officials from the Auraria Campus.
The Denver chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, a leftist group that organized the encampment, had previously made such a meeting one of their seven demands. Other demands include the CU system divesting from any corporations that operate in Israel and ending study abroad programs in Israel.
Since 2016, CU Denver has received almost $3 million from contracts related to Israel. The CU Board of Regents, which is the body that could vote on some of the protester’s demands, went into executive session on Monday to discuss legal advice on “protests.”
One organizer described the meeting with CU Denver Chancellor Michelle Marks and MSU President Janine Davidson as a “waste of time.”
“SDS leaders indicated that they are engaging in ‘civil disobedience,’ they recognize that they are in violation of the campus no-camping policy and they have no intention of removing the tents until their demands are met,” a statement published by the Auraria Campus just after 3 p.m. on Tuesday read.
The statement also said campus leaders asked SDS representatives to continue a dialogue and come up with “creative ways to move forward.”
A spokesperson for CU Denver did not respond to a request for comment. In a message to the university community, Chancellor Marks reiterated that Auraria leaders unsuccessfully met with protest organizers.
“We have seen similar camps at other college campuses around the country lead to safety issues and property destruction, and we have begun to see vandalism on our campus as well,” Marks wrote.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators chant and sing on the Auraria Campus on April 30, 2024. (Henry Larson/CU Independent)
Khalid Hamu, a protest organizer, told the CU Independent that the group plans to keep the encampment up until its demands are met. That’s a sentiment that was echoed by dozens of other demonstrators on Tuesday. Many were further fueled by the police response to the encampment on Friday, including the newly arrived demonstrators from DU.
“[The arrests were] absolutely disgusting. The cops came out and harmed students, literally arrested them and dragged them on the floor,” said Marissa, an organizer of DU For Palestine who declined to give her last name.
The Auraria Campus said arrests were made after protesters violated Auraria’s campus policy banning camping for health and safety reasons. According to demonstrators, all those arrested on Friday have been released.
“Once the demonstration was determined to be an unlawful assembly because the protesters refused to remove the encampment and leave, they were in violation of the policy,” the campus statement read.
On Tuesday evening, CU Denver’s student government held an emergency meeting to hear concerns over the encampment. According to Student Body President-Elect Savannah Brooks, university officials recommended moving that meeting’s public comment online over safety concerns.
Public comment was held in person, although a police officer stood outside the meeting room. Five people spoke who were opposed to the encampment, while another two spoke in favor, in a room of about 30 people. One CU Denver student government representative said it was the most turnout he’d ever seen at such a meeting.
“I feel that the Jewish community here at CU Denver and Auraria are being targeted by these protests,” Lev Horowitz, a second-year biology major at the university said during public comment.
Zoe Fisher, another speaker, is a CU Boulder graduate student and member of Jewish Voices for Peace, a pro-Palestinian group.
“We condemn CU Denver’s repression of pro-Palestine students and the false accusations of antisemitism leveled against principled anti-war protesters to discredit our movements,” Fisher said during the meeting.
The student representatives themselves were split on the issue, with some describing Friday’s police action as irresponsible and unsafe. Others said law enforcement attempted to de-escalate a situation made worse by protesters who refused to follow university policy.
“What we all want is a peaceful resolution,” Jessica Valdez, a CU Denver student representative, said. “And I don’t want to see this used [to] divide us anymore.”
Contact CU Independent Special Investigations Editor Henry Larson at henry.larson@colorado.edu.
