Colorado students reject offer from Denver’s Auraria Campus in pro-Palestinian demonstration

Students who are occupying Denver’s Auraria Campus quad to protest the war in Gaza rejected an offer from their schools. 

The offer would have donated thousands of dollars to the International Red Cross if they had taken down the tents. The offer was the school’s attempt to clear the growing encampment that’s been there for a week with graduation ahead. 

While the war in Gaza continues, students in Fort Collins, Pueblo, Denver and Boulder are demanding that schools cut academic and financial ties with groups that are connected to Israel’s military. That includes study abroad programs with the country, along with investments in companies that conduct business with the Israeli military.

“We’re in absolute support of your right to free speech, your right to assemble,” said Auraria Campus CEO Colleen Walker, who initially enforced the campus’s camping ban. 

CBS News Colorado Reporter Alan Gionet was at the campus moments after the students rejected the offer and says, nearly an hour after the deadline, no one took down a tent. 

A group of donors reportedly came forward with a nonpartisan humanitarian solutions that included $15,000 in the name of Students For Democratic Society donated to the International Red Cross, but only if the encampment was taken down by 5 p.m. Thursday, which was rejected swiftly by the students. 

“The students are well aware that they are in violation of our no camping policy. They have had 20, what I would call — successful protests since October. They followed the rules then; they’re well aware of those rules,” said Walker. “They also as a student organization they know how to rent out spaces here on campus. How to reserve spaces for their events. So they’re ignoring both of those aspects.” 

Members of the Students For Democratic Society had more calls for resistance and reiterated how they want their original demands fulfilled. 

Gionet also described the scene and he says that no police were on the scene after the deadline as the stalemate continues. 

Pro-Palestinian demonstration grows on Denver’s Auraria campus with graduation 1 week away