[8] The 125-acre (0.51 km2) main campus is a designated arboretum and is located primarily in the University Neighborhood,[9] about five miles (8 km) south of downtown Denver.

The first buildings of the university were located in downtown Denver in the 1860s and 1870s, but concerns that Denver's rough-and-tumble frontier town atmosphere was not conducive to education prompted a relocation to the current campus, built on the donated land of potato farmer Rufus Clark, some six miles (11 km) south of the downtown core.

The university grew and prospered alongside the city's growth, appealing primarily to a regional student body prior to World War II.

Margery Reed Hall houses the Undergraduate Program for the Daniels College of Business; an $8 million overhaul and renovation was completed early 2014.

The building was updated to include more classroom space, a larger hall to host guest speakers, as well as mechanical and technical improvements.

[17] Olin Hall includes a two-story rotunda topped with an elliptical copper dome, a sentinel in the university skyline.

[19] In 2002, the university opened the $70 million Robert and Judi Newman Center for Performing Arts, which houses the acclaimed Lamont School of Music.

Donald and Susan Sturm, owners of Denver-based American National Bank, had given $20 million to the University of Denver College of Law.

In 2005 the Graduate School of Social Work completed the renovation and significant expansion of its building, renamed Craig Hall.

DU completed the first ever (Peter S. Barton) lacrosse-only stadium that was specifically designed for the sport in 2005, as well as the Ciber Field Soccer Stadium (2010) on the northern end of campus, adjoining the Nagel studio space for the School of Art, as well as the Pat Bowlen varsity sports weight training facility underneath the stands.

At the beginning of the summer of 2011, the 41-year-old Penrose Library closed for a $32 million renovation, and reopened in the spring of 2013 as the Anderson Academic Commons, a 21st-century high-tech collaboration and study space.

In May 2016, the 47,000 square foot Anna & John J. Sie International Relations Complex opened as an addition to Cherrington Hall.

In 2016, the university opened the 130,000 square foot Daniel Felix Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science on the southern end of campus, adjacent to Olin Hall.

Both are on track to achieve LEED certification and are the first structures completed under the Denver Advantage Campus Framework Plan.

In October 2021, the establishment of the James C. Kennedy Mountain Campus was announced with a $26 million gift from a university alumnus.

The Denver Quarterly has published poems by many poets, including Dobby Gibson, Seyed Morteza Hamidzadeh, Emily Fragos, Donna L. Emerson, Heather Hughes, L. S. Klatt, and Victoria McArtor.

Ice hockey is DU's flagship spectator sport, with 10 NCAA titles (first among all schools), most recently in 2024[42] and including back-to-back crowns in 2004 and 2005.

The program has produced 75 NHL players and regularly sells out the 6,000 seat Magness Arena on campus, the showpiece of the Ritchie Center for Sports and Wellness.

The women's lacrosse team also moved from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) to the Big East Conference in 2017 and in 2019 they reached the Elite 8 (quarterfinals) of the NCAA tournament.

Denver Boone first fell into controversy in 1984 when university administrators began to phase out the Daniel Boone-inspired mascot due to "male gender stereotyping and its specifically western symbolism".

The university founder territorial governor John Evans was found culpable in the Sand Creek massacre.

[46] In November 1864, US Cavalry attacked the Cheyenne and Arapahoe people at a site near Eads, in Southeastern Colorado, killing mostly women, children, and elders.

[47] The scholars on the DU Evans Committee recommended removing the Pioneers moniker, as it glorified the violent legacy of settler colonialism that was specifically perpetrated against Native peoples in the area.

[48] Since the university is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion,[49] the report argues that removing this horrific reminder is necessary: "Instead of asking Native community members whose ancestors were sacrificed before the march of American settler pioneers to sacrifice yet again for the sake of our 'brand,' the University of Denver should finally lay the Pioneer moniker to rest.