BOULDER, Colo. — An 800-page manifesto and police standoff were the "final straw" according to apetitionreleased by students and alumni of CU Boulder.
The petition, released Tuesday afternoon, followed the arrest of ex-UCLA professor Matthew Harris.
Harris allegedly sent a graphic and violent manifesto to his former colleagues in California on Monday, according to law enforcement. He was quickly traced back to Boulder and taken into custody by Boulder police Tuesday after an hours-long standoff.
In the manifesto, Harris made thousands of violent references including,"Burn and attack Boulder outside of the university," according to authorities.
The online petition had gathered just over 3,500 signatures as of Wednesday evening.
The petition calls for the resignation of CU Boulder Chanceller Phillip P. DiStefano, and says in part, "We were put into a shelter in place lockdown, but only for the single block of houses that the assumed suspect was on. This block happened to be 100 feet from campus as it was literally across the street from one of the most popular areas on campus (the UMC). Although there was a shelter in place, classes were still going on according to our regular schedules."
Boulder police did evacuate students at a nearby elementary school, as well as some sorority and fraternity houses.
Authors of the call-to-action said they felt the university should have moved all classes online Tuesday. University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) canceled classed on Tuesday in response to the threats.
"To think he actually wrote threats about our school and that we still had to go to class that same day is pretty ridiculous," one student told Denver7.
"I don't understand why we weren't shut down," said another student. "The suspect was actually found here."
Denver7 reached out to the university about the petition. A spokesman referred back to a letter the chancellor wrote on Tuesday.
In the letter, DiStefano wrote, "Because the suspect was under constant surveillance, CUPD determined that there was not an active threat to the campus."