Civil rights probe of antisemitism at U.S. colleges may target Denver’s Auraria campus

A year-long investigation by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights into what it characterizes as rising antisemitism at American colleges may look at Denver’s Auraria campus, site of a nearly month-long encampment by pro-Palestinian demonstrators last year.

The commission’s Colorado Advisory Committee is hosting two public meetings online next month “to plan virtual briefings on the topic of examining campus antisemitism at three Colorado universities,” according to a notice in the Federal Register this week.

Ana Victoria Fortes, a civil rights analyst with the federal commission, said in an email Friday that the advisory committee will vote at the first of those meetings, on May 8, on a draft project proposal to include the Auraria campus, home to the Community College of Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver and University of Colorado Denver.

Fortes said the proposal is subject to change following the discussion at the meeting. She said, via email, that she was not available for an interview Friday.

Devra Ashby, a spokesperson for the Auraria Higher Education Center, said the campus has not been made aware of the upcoming meetings.

“That said, we remain steadfast in our commitment to fostering a safe, inclusive and respectful environment for all members of our campus community,” Ashby wrote in an email. “Antisemitism, and any form of hate or discrimination, have no place on our campus.”

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted unanimously on Jan. 17 to open a probe titled “Federal Response to the Rise in Antisemitism on American College and University Campuses,” with a report due in fiscal year 2026, which runs from Oct. 1, 2025, to Sept. 30, 2026.

The commission, created by the Civil Rights Act of 1957, consists of eight bipartisan members — legal scholars, business people and politicians — appointed by the president and Congress. It describes itself as a fact-finding agency with a mission of informing civil rights policy and enforcement.

At the Jan. 17 meeting, the commissioners said the federal investigation would look at how the U.S. Department of Education and its Office of Civil Rights responded to claims of antisemitic incidents on college campuses since October 2023, when Hamas launched a surprise attack across Israel’s southern border, killing roughly 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

Israel’s response, the bombing and invading of Gaza, has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians and sparked anti-war protests on campuses across the United States, including in Colorado. The 23-day encampment at the downtown Auraria campus was the largest of the demonstrations in Colorado.

Commissioner Mondaire Jones, a Democrat appointed by Congress, said the commission will “prioritize a diversity of viewpoints when it comes to this really controversial topic,” according to a transcript of the meeting.

“One of the things that we are already looking at is the difference between speech that is protected, obviously, and that which is illegal,” Jones said.

The meetings come as the Trump administration has opened federal investigations and threatened to withhold federal dollars to universities the government alleges are partaking in antisemitic activities.

The Trump administration has argued that universities across the country, including Columbia and Harvard, allowed antisemitism to go unchecked during last year’s campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.

After the Trump administration issued a list of demands Harvard must meet to continue receiving federal funds, the Ivy League university announced this week it was filing suit to halt the federal freeze on billions of dollars in grants after saying it would defy demands to limit activism on campus.