Auraria protesters clarify demands, seek transparency on schools’ investments

Heather Willard
·4 min read
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DENVER (KDVR) — On Wednesday, pro-Palestinian protesters at the Auraria Campus spoke publicly to discuss the group’s camp, their demands and what meeting their demands would look like.

The demonstrators are preparing to enter their second week of camping on the Tivoli Quad to protest the business ties with Israel purported to be held by the higher education institutions at the Denver campus.

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Auraria is home to the University of Colorado Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver and Community College of Denver. Four students with the Denver chapter of Students for a Democratic Society represented the camp on Wednesday, and said that if their demands were met, they’d “pack it up in the next five minutes.”

What are the protesters demanding?

Those demands are for the University of Colorado to:

  • Publish a statement “condemning the genocidal actions of Israel.”

  • Fully divest from any corporations operating in Israel.

  • Fully disclose financial investments.

  • Terminate study abroad programs to Israel.

  • Refuse to “accept grants or funding from corporations that contract with the U.S. armed forces and terminate any relationships with said corporations.”

  • Release all arrested on April 26 at the Auraria Campus and drop the charges.

  • Have Chancellor Michelle Marks of CU Denver meet with student organizers to discuss and plan implementation of the above demands.

One of those demands has been met — students sat down with Marks and Janine Davidson, the president of MSU, on Tuesday, but said it was unproductive overall.

“We don’t plan to stop this encampment until our demands are met. The university could meet our demands and we could pack this up in five minutes, but as long as they continue to invest in genocide, as long as they continue to go against the will of the students, we will have this encampment up,” said Khalid Hamu, a student at the University of Colorado Denver and member of SDS.

Hamu said that on Friday, April 26, the student protesters complied with demands to take down all tents and structures, or risk being arrested for breaking the campus’ no-camping policy. However, Hamu said despite taking down tents and removing them from the direct area, 44 protesters were arrested and are facing trespassing charges, including 22 students. The demonstrators added the demand for charges to be dropped after those arrests.

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Another student protester attending CU Denver, Geral Mueller, said the students have been pressing their universities for change for months, but have not seen any changes. The demonstrator said while dozens of police were arresting protesters, other 911 calls were “ignored.”

FOX31 asked the Denver Police Department if any 911 calls were impacted by the protest response, and the agency said the teams at the protest were not normally on daily patrol operations, and so did not impact patrols.

Colleges respond to protesters’ demands

The Auraria Campus said in a statement released Tuesday that Marks “reiterated to the students that their list of demands largely sits outside of her purview, as many fall under the CU Board of Regents and President.”

The Campus also said CU Denver does not have any study-abroad programs in Israel, which the students said they cannot completely dispute due to a lack of financial transparency.

Students say they still have not seen any financial transparency from CU, and the school administrators protesters have met with said they did not have the power to divest the university from any Israeli companies. The students said the next step would be to put the protesters in contact with the group that could change the university’s investments, but said that contact has not been made.

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Mueller also said that the CU Board of Regents will meet virtually on Wednesday afternoon, but will hold the meeting in executive session, preventing public input. According to the protesters, the Board of Regents would have the authority to issue a statement about the Israel-Hamas war.

Protesters seeking transparency on investments to Israel

When asked if SDS knows of any direct ties to Israel from CU, Mueller claimed there are no financial documents available to the protesters that detail the university’s investments. However, Mueller said the group is “aware of weapons manufacturing and weapon parts happening on campus that are used to bomb Palestinians.”

The group was also asked if they believe that having their demands met would have an effect on the war in Gaza.

“We understand that a single university divesting from Israel is not going to single-handedly end the genocide of the Palestinian people, but we think that if two universities, three, five, 20, 50, 100 — then that’s blow after blow after blow,” said Harriet Falconetti. “We think that’s a very key aspect of ending that genocide.”

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Hamu echoed those thoughts.

“It is our debt they are taking so they can go and build up ties with weapons manufacturers, this (camp) is a want of the campus, so this is a change the campus needs to see,” Hamu said.

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