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Administrators defend response to Auraria anti-war encampment [1]
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Date: 2025-08-20
Administrators representing the three colleges located at Denver’s Auraria Campus during a hearing Wednesday defended the institutional responses to an anti-war encampment that occurred last year.
The 10-member Colorado Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights oversees an investigation into alleged antisemitism at the Auraria Campus, site of the University of Colorado Denver, Community College of Denver and Metropolitan State University of Denver.
In April 2024, anti-war demonstrators set up an encampment on the Auraria Campus quad, in protest of university policies relating to Israel and the war in Gaza. They called for the university to condemn “the genocidal actions of Israel” and divest from companies that manufacture weapons or operate in Israel.
Police in riot gear arrested at least 40 demonstrators a day after the encampment was set up. Anti-war protests continued on the Auraria Campus throughout the spring 2024 semester. Skip Spear, the chief administrative officer and general counsel for the Auraria Higher Education Center, said during the committee’s virtual hearing that 81 people were arrested in relation to the anti-war demonstrations, 33 of whom were affiliated with the colleges.
“(The Auraria Higher Education Center) did everything in its power to keep our campus safe through our limited police department, but we did not have the resources to respond to a disturbance this large, without assistance,” Spear said.
In response to last year’s anti-war encampments on college campuses across the country, the Trump administration has targeted universities like Harvard, Columbia and UCLA for antisemitism probes and research funding freezes.
The committee’s goal with the investigation is to “contribute to more informed approaches to federal, state, and education policy in higher education and develop recommendations” directed to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and other federal entities.
David Fine, the general counsel for MSU Denver, said that few of the April 2024 demonstrators were MSU Denver students.
“MSU Denver is very different from a school like Columbia, for example, where parents can afford to spend roughly $100,000 a year to have their students sit in encampments for weeks,” Fine said. “Our students are working their way through school, and they’re here to get a degree and get a job.”
After college administrators spoke during the Wednesday hearing, the committee hosted a community forum, which was also virtual. Several professors, alumni and students spoke.
The encampment was mostly coordinated by undergraduate students, who were protected by nothing but tents and their trust in each other, staring down armed police in riot gear on their own campus, without escalating. – Jessica Ellis, student at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Chloe East, an economics professor at the University of Colorado Boulder who previously taught at the Auraria campus, said during the forum that she went to the encampment several times and spoke to student demonstrators. East said the encampment was an “inclusive and welcoming space.”
“We are seeing attacks on free speech at the federal level, with the Trump administration targeting students and others around the country whose views he does not agree with,” East said. “I urge the committee not to bring these kinds of attacks on free speech to our state and to our schools.”
Jessica Ellis, a student at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, said she attended the April encampment, where she saw an “atmosphere that was peaceful, positive and prioritized growth and learning.”
“In my entire life, this encampment was the largest, most intentional and authentic display of interfaith and multiethnic cooperation and respect,” Ellis said. “The encampment was mostly coordinated by undergraduate students, who were protected by nothing but tents and their trust in each other, staring down armed police in riot gear on their own campus, without escalating.”
Ellis added, “I emphatically disagree with the allegations of widespread antisemitism during this encampment.”
Brandon Rattiner, the senior director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Colorado, said in a July interview with Colorado Newsline that he hopes the work of the committee can spotlight “the experiences that made life on campus really difficult for Jewish students, and also create pressure for universities to do better.”
He added, however, that there “are many people in our community who are uncomfortable with the way combating antisemitism has been used to attack higher education in the abstract in this country.”
“We want to make sure that this process stays focused on our real concerns, and doesn’t turn Jewish pain into a political football that is being used to advance political agendas,” Rattiner said.
Since Israel’s intense bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza began after Oct. 7, 2023, when a Hamas-led attack killed more than 1,200 people in Israel, at least 60,000 Palestinians are reported to have been killed, while many more have been injured and face widespread hunger.
The committee’s next public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 3, when Auraria Campus student organizations and other impacted people are set to testify.
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