By: Ashmar Mandou

Local activists, including those who were arrested by University of Chicago (U of C) police during a peaceful protest four weeks ago, returned to the University of Chicago Hospital Saturday demanding the U of C drops charges and reopen a trauma center for local residents.

Last weekend, U of C officially opened the doors to the Center for Care and Discovery, a $700 million project that took five years to complete. The 1.2 million-square-foot center has 240 single patient rooms and offers a wide range of medical assistance. However, local activists, like Veronica Morris-Moore, are crying foul and accusing University of Chicago’s President Robert Zimmer of being ‘elitist’ by not doing their part to lower the homicide rate by expanding a life-saving trauma care unit.

“There is a history of racial exclusion that this new $700 million hospital is an example of,” said Moore, a member of Fearless Leading by the Youth, the group that organized the protest. “It’s time the University reverses this sad history and does its part to lower the homicide rate and save the lives of youth of color who are dying at its doors.”

On January 27, the University of Chicago arrested four protesters including a student, alumni, community member and high school student who were peacefully protesting the development of the new $700M Hospital building, calling for expanding access to life saving trauma care.

The University of Chicago sits in the middle of a gun violence epidemic claiming the lives of dozens of children every year. The University of Chicago Hospital opened The Children’s Comer Hospital in 2006, which has a children’s trauma center, but only take children up to age 15. Protesters are demanding University of Chicago Hospital raise the age limit of their children’s trauma center.