WATCH: Students demand CSU defund police in response to 'hateful' campus preachers
Students are demanding that Colorado State University defund their campus police department after 'hateful' preachers spoke in an outdoor area of campus.
A campus organization issued a letter listing the demands to the university, with students also protesting campus police in-person.
Students are demanding in a letter that Colorado State University defund their campus police department after “hateful” preachers spoke in an outdoor area of campus.
The campus organization #CallOutCSU issued a list of demands to the CSU administration after preachers came onto campus on September 7-8 and were “verbally attacking” students, as well as condemning the LGBTQ community, The Rocky Mountain Collegian reported.
#CallOutCSU gave the university administration 30 days from September 17 to respond to their demands, according to the outlet.
The demands ranged from the creation of a campus “racist” alert system, defunding the campus police, the creation of a “buddy” system, and more.
Kevin Lorusso, the Vice President of Turning Point at Colorado State University told Campus Reform that universities should instead foster a culture of viewpoint diversity.
“The people demanding these things are using their right to free speech to remove other people’s right to free speech,” he continued. “Universities are places you go to have your ideas challenged and thoughts provoked. To learn new perspectives, whether you agree with them or not.”
Lorusso also filmed the video of the campus protest, an event that occurred subsequent to the letter’s publication.
Specifically, the students’ list of demands included, “a non-police based force be created to observe and intervene in incidents of discriminatory harassment and bias motivated harassment to remove offending persons from campus, utilizing the $3.3 million dollars allocated to CSUPD from the education & general fund to train these non-police based personnel,” the list of demands state.
The protesters also demanded that the university create a “buddy system” for marginalized groups to use while walking to class.
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“We demand that a buddy system walk to class service be created for students to be able to get to class without feeling alone and scared,” the letter states.
Additional demands include the relocation of “disruptive” speakers to an area where they will not be heard by “LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, disabled, and immigrant students going to classes.”
Speaking to the nature of the college experience, Lorusso stated to Campus Reform, “You are going to be uncomfortable. To say anything that makes people uncomfortable should be removed from campus, that ruins the university.”
A similar incident to this one occurred at the University of Alabama at Birmingham on Sept. 14, where a student got into a physical altercation with a campus preacher, according to AL.com.
