The anti-war encampment on Denver’s Auraria Campus is now empty after pro-Palestine protests first began 23 days ago.
Removal of the encampment by demonstrators started around 8 p.m. on Friday, with most of it gone by Saturday morning, said Auraria spokesperson Devra Ashby. “The encampment was dispersed in a relatively calm manner, except for blocking Speer and Auraria last night,” she added.
The Auraria Campus announced the dispersal of the Tivoli Quad encampment on Saturday near 1 p.m., citing that cleanup starts today. However, access to the campus buildings remains limited to “critical personnel and operations,” with Tivoli Quad and other green spaces also closed for repairs, according to a statement issued by the campus.
“Leaders have worked diligently towards finding a peaceful resolution,” the statement details. “We hope this will end more than three weeks of unauthorized occupation that has increasingly escalated into dangerous activities, taken significant time, resources, and dialogue with student protesters to resolve, and has pulled us away from our academic mission and goals.”
Protestors first pitched their tents on April 25, with the goal of pressuring the University of Colorado system into cutting ties with Israel, including by divesting from corporations in the Middle Eastern country and ceasing study programs abroad.
Ashby didn’t immediately respond to a question asking whether any of these demands were agreed to by university officials.
On Friday, the University of Colorado Denver told students that classes would take place online “until further notice” due to the encampment, and events held on the Auraria Campus were canceled through next week.
Similar protests continue to occur on college campuses nationwide. The latest related developments include a University of Chicago campus building occupied on Friday, the arrest of 19 protestors who tried to occupy a University of Pennsylvania building on Friday and an agreement reached between protestors and Sonoma State University administration on Tuesday in California.
This is a developing story and may be updated.