Auraria organizers reject offer of $15,000 donation to remove pro-Palestinian encampment

Auraria student organizers on Thursday rejected a proposal from campus officials to remove the week-old encampment in Denver in exchange for a $15,000 donation to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

In a letter posted online, Campus leaders said a group of donors came forward with an “impartial humanitarian solution to restore order in the Quad by removing the encampment.”

The donation on behalf of Students for a Democratic Society was contingent on the removal of the pro-Palestinian camp by 5 p.m. Thursday and future protests to comply with campus policy. campus officials wrote.

In posts on Instagram and The Denver chapter of SDS said campus administrators were trying to buy them out and that students will not end the camp until their demands are met.

A second campus demonstration began Thursday in Colorado Springs, where protesters set up an encampment on Colorado College’s Tava Quad.

The encampment had at least 10 tents, Student journalists from The Catalyst report this.

An Instagram page for the encampment described it as a “community liberated zone” in solidarity with Gaza and listed demands similar to those of Auraria organizers, including transparency over the private university’s endowments, divestment from arms companies and the cancellation of summer study trips to the abroad in Israel.

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