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Four faculty members and 19 students were frog marched to an IU bus (that’s right, an IU bus), booked into the local jail, charged with criminal trespass or worse, and banned from campus for one year. One arrested protester, Bryce Greene, was issued a five-year campus ban. Thirty-three additional students and professors had been arrested in similarly brutal fashion two days earlier.
How did we get here?
Since at least 1969, Dunn Meadow has been a dedicated free speech and assembly area for peaceful protest. Students staged anti-Vietnam war rallies there in the 1960s and 1970s, hosted a shantytown for a month in 1986 to protest apartheid in South Africa, and set up a “peace camp” in 1991 during the Persian Gulf war. Now protesters are calling for IU to divest from Israel and cut ties with the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center. Successive administrations of the university have supported students’ right to speak freely and to assemble peaceably on Dunn Meadow.
President Pamela Whitten, however, has decided to go against decades of precedent. Shortly ahead of a protest planned for Thursday, April 25, she convened an “ad-hoc” four-person committee to hastily rewrite the longstanding university policy. The change required that protesters obtain prior approval for signs and designated structures, such as tents — which previously had been allowed during daylight hours, “as long as protesters remained in Dunn Meadow and did not block any building egress or disrupt campus activities.” There was no faculty or student representation at that closed-door meeting. The application of this shabbily constructed “rule” was classic “ex post facto” and very likely unconstitutional.
Whitten allegedly called in state police based on “tips” she received that student protesters were wielding weapons such as rocks and mace. The only weapons anyone has seen have been those carried by the state police.
State police vehicles have swarmed the town and campus since Thursday, alongside two armored vehicles. Police helicopters and drones circle the skies over campus.
Notably, other universities in the Big Ten have taken a more clearheaded approach to student protests. Michigan State’s president, Kevin M. Guskiewicz, on Friday issued a statement affirming the university’s commitment to a policy that “respects and upholds the right to protest and freedom of speech.” Guskiewicz noted that the campus (not state) police were “instrumental in ensuring a safe environment for the protest and for our greater campus” (emphasis added). Similarly, the police presence in response to peaceful protests on Purdue University’s campus has been reportedly minimal to nonexistent.
The crisis at Indiana University has shown the worst side of the university’s current administration, ramping up calls for their resignation to fever-pitch levels. Both Whitten and the provost, Rahul Shrivastav, had already received overwhelming votes of no confidence from the faculty in mid-April. This newest crisis has solidified opposition to their leadership.
The students peacefully protesting at Dunn Meadow are still there, and they keep their encampment organized and orderly. They observe quiet hours to allow for rest, sleep, and prayer. Alcohol is strictly prohibited. Protesters are instructed not to engage with hecklers. They’ve organized a Popular University featuring open-mic lectures and a lending library. Students take care of one another’s needs through an ethos of mutual aid. Concerned faculty, staff, fellow students, and community members — who may or may not agree with all of the protesters’ stances and views — contribute a meal, bring sunscreen, report on police movements, give a lecture, write and sign petitions, organize legal aid, play board games, and teach the students age-old protest songs and learn new ones from them.
Free speech is the backbone of democracy and a fundamental element of public education. Unarmed students occupying a university’s historic site for peaceful protest should not have to fear for their physical safety.
To quote an open letter signed by IU faculty, university administrators have no right “to authorize unprovoked, violent, armed attacks on the very students and faculty they are supposed to protect.” This madness must end.