The Macky Auditorium (Courtesy of CU Boulder)
On Tuesday, Jan. 30, a truck with large electronic billboards on its sides parked on the University of Colorado Boulder’s main campus. The truck was hired by a conservative non-profit, Accuracy in Media, and named members of the university’s ethnic studies department as “Boulder’s leading antisemites.”
At least one ethnic studies professor moved their class online indefinitely due to safety concerns.
Photos posted on Instagram showed the truck parked outside Macky Auditorium early Tuesday afternoon.
“The mobile billboards will expose antisemitic students and faculty,” Accuracy In Media(AIM) said in a press release sent Tuesday morning. The billboards also promoted a petition urging employers to blacklist applicants who have engaged in “antisemitic activities or expressed antisemitic sentiments on college campuses.”
Following the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, the organization has drawn attention and controversy for putting the names and faces of pro-Palestinian students and faculty on trucks and driving them around large university campuses.
CU released an official statement saying, “The University of Colorado Boulder condemns tactics designed to intimidate and threaten our students, faculty and staff. We will continue to support all of our students, faculty and staff and have provided resources to those who have been maliciously identified against their will.”
A representative from the organization was not available for immediate comment. AIM’s press release said the truck would remain at CU Boulder, and five other college campuses, through Jan. 31.
AIM partnered with Canary Mission, a database that tracks student activists, professors and college organizations that it considers to be antisemitic or share anti-Israel views.
Critics of these groups say their actions amount to doxxing, and are harmful to students and faculty who have expressed support for Palestinians.
“This AIM doxxing truck is used to falsely slander faculty, students and staff in many universities across the U.S.,” said one advocate and member of the Colorado-Palestinian community. They spoke to the CU Independent on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution.
CU Boulder’s ethnic studies department faced pushback after releasing a pro-Palestinian statement on Oct. 23, 2023. The statement, which supported a “free Palestine,” was criticized by Jewish community members and advocacy groups for not condemning the militant group Hamas.
“The statement recently posted on the Department of Ethnic Studies website is not an official CU Boulder position on the Israel-Hamas War,” Chancellor Philip DiStefano wrote in a message published Oct. 26. The department later withdrew its original statement, claiming it was “under attack.”
“We received calls from students, parents, concerned residents here in Colorado and far beyond about the statement that the ethnic studies department at CU Boulder issued at the start of a conflict,” Jeremy Shaver, the senior associate regional director for the Anti-Defamation League’s Mountain States Region, told the CU Independent in November.
Reports of campus antisemitic and Islamophobic discrimination rose after the start of the conflict in Gaza, mirroring national trends. Pro-Palestinian students criticized the university for not coming to the defense of the department in the weeks following the statement.
Several members of the ethnic studies department were not immediately available for comment.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
Contact CU Independent Special Investigations Editor Henry Larson at henry.larson@colorado.edu.
Contact CU Independent Managing Editor Kiara DeMare at kiara.demare@colorado.edu.
