CU DEI Center Threatens Native Event with Forced Removal

On Nov. 18, at 11:33 am, student groups Oyate Native Student Org, United Mexican American Students (UMAS) y Mecha received emails from the Center for Cultural Connections and Community (formerly Center for Inclusion and Social Change) that their planned “Thankstaking” potluck and panel event was at risk of being shut down. This event, which is scheduled for Nov. 20, is also a collaboration with the group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), aiming to showcase the intersectionality between Indigenous communities in the Americas and Palestine. This event is planned to take place in the Abrams Lounge, which is held by the Center for Cultural Connections and Community.

The groups that organized the event are featuring three guest panelists, including one who actually works at the Center for Cultural Connections and Community as the Program Manager of Native and Indigenous Students, Brandi Russell. When we interviewed an UMAS y Mecha member, they stated, “We find this move shocking. I mean, the irony isn’t lost on us that the DEI space on the CU Boulder campus is kicking out Native students. We also understand that it isn’t Ms. Russell’s fault, and is actually pretty tragic, that her employers have decided her wisdom is not worth sharing with students if it includes any relation to Palestine.”

In the Center for Cultural Connections and Community’s email to the student orgs, they note that, “SJP at CU Boulder is currently an organization in bad standing,” and that they have until, “…noon on Wednesday, November 19, so [the Center can] ensure the event and the space are appropriately managed per campus rules and policy. ” In their email, the DEI center also notes that the groups, “…will need to secure an alternative location in compliance with University policy, as SJP are not eligible to host, co-host or sponsor events in campus-reservable spaces unless you are paying campus rental rates as a non-student organization.”

One student we interviewed, who regularly attends events hosted by Oyate and the Center for Cultural Connections and Community, noted their surprise at the attempted cancellation of this event, but also stated that “at the end of the day, CU Boulder exists as a facet of colonial expansion, and therefore will continue to follow its founding principals of Native suppression and colonial expansion.” Another anonymous member of SJP, whom we interviewed, remarked that, “I guess you can only be culturally connective when you are not culturally connecting with Palestine.” It is unknown at this time what decision the student orgs will make.