Several hundred protesters gathered at Denver’s Auraria campus on Thursday, setting up an encampment and demanding the University of Colorado divest from activities and funding related to Israel.
Protesters pitched more than a dozen tents and carried in food and water to the Tivoli Quad as organizers led chants, gave legal advice and pledged to stay until CU officials met their demands.
The protest mirrored those at universities across the country responding to the war between Israel and Hamas.
Members of Students for a Democratic Society’s Denver chapter said campus officials warned them police would disperse the protest at sunset, but no police officers were at the protest as of 8 p.m.
“This is an issue between students and administrators, and there’s no need to involve police,” organizer and Metropolitan State University of Denver student Paul Nelson said. “Nobody’s safety is in danger. It would be political repression, plain and simple.”
Denver police vehicles were parked outside the Tivoli Student Union at 5:30 p.m., but spokesperson Katherine McCandless said officers were monitoring the protest and would soon leave the area. Police did not plan to break up the protest Thursday night, McCandless said, and most of the vehicles were gone by 8 p.m.
Nelson and other student organizers said they initially were planning a rally in support of Palestinians but decided to turn it into an encampment, inspired by similar protests at Columbia University, the University of Texas and the University of Southern California.
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“We’re not afraid of any repression that’s coming, because we’re standing on the right side of history,” organizer Geral Mueller said.
Student demands include for the CU system to divest from any corporations operating in Israel, to end and refuse grants or funding from corporations with military contracts, to end study programs in Israel, to publish a statement “condemning the genocidal actions of Israel,” to disclose the university’s financial investments and for CU Denver Chancellor Michelle Marks to meet with student organizers.
“We would love to pack up and go home, but until those demands are met, we will stay here,” organizer Abdullah Elagha said.
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