Amidst the threat of disruption by pro-Palestinian protesters whose escalating activities worried officials in the last few days, students at Metropolitan State University of Denver celebrated their achievements during the spring commencement exercises on Friday.

Two graduation ceremonies honoring more than 2,000 college students obtaining degrees kicked off without a hitch on Friday at the Denver Coliseum.

The threat of disruption from protesters — university officials earlier said “national disruptors” had infiltrated the encampment on the Auraria Campus quad a few miles away — failed to materialize.

“They overtly threatened to do so,” MSU Denver President Janine Davidson said, citing meetings with protesters, in which the latter, she said, threatened to stage demonstrations outside graduation grounds if their demands were not met.

“Across the country, this is happening on like 80 different campuses. Everyone is just trying to get it right,” Davidson said of the response to the pro-Palestine protests that erupted in April on college campuses across the country. “We’re learning. It’s been 15 days.”

At Friday’s ceremonies, students from the college’s various departments received diplomas and cheered as they embraced the end of their college life and the beginning of another chapter. 

Had the protesters backed the university into canceling the ceremonies or disrupted the graduation, they would have deprived the students, who come from a wide range of backgrounds, the opportunity to experience an important rite of passage. Some universities elsewhere in the country have cancelled their main graduation ceremonies, moved them off campus or decided to hold smaller celebrations somewhere else — for the batch of students who were also deprived of a traditional high school graduation during the COVID-19 years.   

MSU Denver’s 1,789 bachelor’s graduates included 838 students of color and 552 Latino students, according to the school. Some 51% of graduates were first-generation students, as well.

“For many of you, you started your first year during the global pandemic and were cut off from the real connection with your professors and other students, isolated and not knowing when things were going to get back to normal,” said U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, the keynote speaker at the morning’s ceremonies. “After everything, each of you have been able to overcome the hardships and obstacles you faced.”

Pro-Palestinian protest escalates

Some 6 miles away, the pro-Palestinian protest, which aims to impose what effectively amounts to an economic sanction against Israel, has been escalating.

On Monday, protesters “forcefully” entered and occupied the campus executive office, a private and locked space in the Tivoli Student Union, said Devra Ashby, a spokesperson for the campus. About 50 students blocked the office entrance, “yelling, banging on the glass doors and causing damage to the doors,” Ashby said.

On Tuesday, protesters attempted to occupy the office two more times, again banging on windows and doors, resulting in 14 trespass and failure to obey summons, she said.

And on Thursday night, roughly 100 protesters swarmed the corner of Mariposa Street and Colfax in Denver and formed a circle, compelling the police to shut down Colfax between Kalamath and Osage streets. 

“We don’t want to arrest peaceful protesters unless they start doing something against the law,” Davidson said. “We have a campus policy, which isn’t a law, about no camping. That’s the part we’re sort of massaging. At some point, you can’t just sit here forever with your porta potties that don’t work.”

“They’re starting to escalate in ways that push those lines, like marching through buildings,” she added.

The university president said the Denver mayor’s office, the state of Colorado, and the three higher education institutions sharing the campus are in discussions on how best to approach the situation.

University officials held a Thursday press conference outlining their health and safety worries arising at the encampment, noting that feces now litter the area, some have observed drug paraphernalia and homeless people have also now set up tents.

Campus officials also said there have been conversations among campers involving threats of violence against administration and staffers, as well as sightings of weapons, such as baseball bats.

No arrests have been made since the police swept the encampment on April 26. That day, the police handcuffed 45 people.

University officials have met with students leading the protests four times, but the majority of the protesters are not students, and their demands are “confusing,” Davidson said.

The demands appear to be a template that the activists have applied to all universities, such as Columbia University, according to Davidson. The difference is that Columbia University is a private school, while MSU Denver is a public entity.

“Those are private schools. We’re a public school, so the state has our money. We don’t invest money. So, investing in Israel is irrelevant,” Davidson said.

The protesters are demanding that the University of Colorado Denver divest from corporations that operate in Israel.  In addition to divestment, they asked for an end to University of Colorado’s study abroad programs to Israel and to refuse grants or funding from corporations that contract with the U.S. military. 

They demanded that the university “write and publish a statement condemning the genocidal actions of Israel.” Finally, the protesters asked to meet with Michelle Marks, chancellor of the University of Colorado Denver, to discuss how to implement their demands.   

Marks had reiterated to the students that their demands largely “(sit) outside of her purview, as many fall under the CU Board of Regents and President.” CU Denver also said it does not have any study-abroad programs in Israel. 

The protests had been a growing source of worry for Jewish students in Colorado. Shira Teed, assistant director at Colorado Hillel, said Jewish students are “anxious, uncomfortable, and aren’t feeling great.” An affiliate of Hillel International, Colorado Hillel serves more than 2,000 Jewish students in metro Denver and northern Colorado.

The protesters, meanwhile, have insisted that Jewish Americans don’t hold a monolithic view, pointing to Jewish Voices for Peace as an ally to their cause. The group has been calling for a “permanent ceasefire and an end to Israel’s genocide against Gaza.”

And in an email late last month, Jonathan Kuhne, one of the protesters arrested, said the protests had been “completely peaceful, nothing was being disrupted, no one was being disturbed and there were no safety issues.”

Since Kuhne sent the email, university officials have raised public safety issues and worries about health hazard.   

Referring to the activists’ demands, Davidson, the MSU president, said, “As a public university, we don’t do that sort of thing.”

“We put statements out in support of our students who are feeling anxious about what’s happening in the world — those sort of things,” she told The Denver Gazette. “So, I’m looking at them going, ‘I don’t understand what we can do for you.’”