Thursday, Apr. 17 — Auraria Campus is usually quiet this time of year. Students and faculty battle end-of-the-semester malaise, frantically pushing themselves until they can collapse on the finish line. Powerful gusts of wind blast across campus, perhaps nature’s stern reminder to stay inside and study. Signs of life are minimal — save for those crazed few who decide they have bigger priorities.
On this particular Thursday, two unions representing Metropolitan State University of Denver and University of Colorado Denver faculty jointly hosted a “Rally to Defend Higher Education” on Auraria Campus. The rally, organized by the MSU Denver Faculty Federation (MSFF) and United Campus Workers (UCW) was part of a national day of action called by the Coalition for Action in Higher Education, a countrywide organization with ties to several university labor organizations.
The rally occurred amid a political thunderstorm on college campuses, including the Trump administration’s cuts to federal funding of universities, shrinking wages and benefits for faculty and student employees and the revocations of hundreds of student visas across the country. For rally organizers, these issues constituted a broader campaign against higher education by the Trump administration.
“The goal of this event was to make it as broad as possible and to launch a broader effort to oppose these attacks,” said Alex Boodrookas, a history professor at MSU and member of MSFF’s steering committee. “Our goal was really to get a broader coalition started in the hope that this would lead the defense of higher ed.”
The rally was one of the first to be jointly hosted by MSFF and UCW. Representatives from both unions hope that the Apr. 17 rally will lead to more cooperation between the two organizations. MSFF, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, has organized on Auraria Campus since the early 2000s. UCW, an affiliate of Communication Workers of America, has organized within the CU system since 2020.
“In the last year or so, we’ve been having a lot more conversations across the institutions,” said Chloe East, an economics professor at CU Denver and member of UCW’s organizing committee. “We’re in a unique position on this campus that we have so many people in the same space that don’t necessarily know each other or work together or go to school together, so it’s been really meaningful to build those connections.”
Both unions argue that university faculty have to work more hours and for less pay than is fair, in addition to a lack of job security. Both organizations have also criticized their respective universities’ administration for ignoring their demands and exacerbating employees’ financial troubles.
Not every rally attendee was a university employee, but many students felt a similar financial pinch. Cuts to federal funding and financial aid by the Trump administration have hit close to home for many Auraria students. At CU Denver, 72% of undergraduate students receive financial aid, while at MSU Denver 55% of undergraduate students rely on scholarships and grants. As federal funding for higher education dries up, many of these students will have to make a choice between their education and their wallet.
“I’m a Pell Grant recipient. I would never be able to go to college if I didn’t have funding from the federal government,” said Theodore Jones, a sociology major at the Community College of Denver. “The Trump administration’s attack on education is limiting those opportunities, especially to immigrants on campus.”
Jones is a member of Students for a Democratic Society, a student activist organization which established a pro-Palestine encampment on the Tivoli Quad last April. The backlash to this and other pro-Palestine encampments was another prominent issue of the rally, which was held on the anniversary of the first encampment at Columbia University.
At the rally, speakers condemned the Auraria Higher Education Center and Auraria Campus Police for the arrest of 44 people on Apr. 26, 2024, criticizing the crackdown as a violation of free speech rights. Speakers tied the Auraria arrests to the Trump administration’s arrests and possible deportations of pro-Palestine student activists like Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk.
Auraria has not been immune to these threats—as of Apr. 17, 22 CU students, including at least one CU Denver student, have had their visas revoked for undisclosed reasons. While it is unclear if these revocations were in response to any political activism, speakers at the rally stressed the importance of free speech on college campuses. However, rally attendees were cynical about the prospect of university administrators taking action to protect students without some prodding.
“[Administrators] talk about how they support their students of color, but it feels like bullshit,” said Amelia Federico, fourth-year political science major at MSU. “I see people here who are committed to supporting students. I don’t care if you have a fucking meeting to be at because you’re the VP of whatever the fuck.”
Federico, a council member in MSU’s Student Advocacy Council, criticized MSU administrators for being aloof from students, referring to their offices as “the ivory tower.” For Federico, university administrators have a responsibility to protect their students that has not been met. However, in the absence of administrators from CU and MSU at the event, Federico still felt confident that resistance could be mounted on Auraria Campus.
“Our power is right here,” said Federico. “Our power is in numbers, in building community care. I have friends in this audience who I know that I can call on if I’m having a hard day, and I know that there are faculty members in this audience that I can do the same for.”
